Finally getting Shaq Diesel back on the winning track Saturday at Gulfstream Park after a 13-month dry spell was special enough for trainer David Fawkes. But doing so with a victory in the Big Drama Stakes made the moment all the more memorable, Fawkes admitted in the aftermath of the race.
“I think I’ve been close in this race a couple of times but as far as I can recall, this is the first time I’ve ever won it,” said Fawkes, who guided Big Drama through his Eclipse Award-winning campaign in 2010. “To finally do it was pretty cool. It meant a lot to me.”
Shaq Diesel not only snapped an 11-race losing skid, he did so in style, drawing off to a convincing four-length victory over Air Combat, who came into the event riding a five-race winning streak. Shaq Diesel matched his career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 90 in the process.
“He’s been overmatched a few times, had some tough luck, and with his running style needs the pace to set up for him just right,” Fawkes explained when asked about Shaq Diesel’s win drought. “He hadn’t been at his best for a while there, but off his previous race I knew he was coming back around to top form, and he really put in a good run. He was very impressive.”
Shaq Diesel did take advantage of a racetrack that has been favoring horses racing out from the rail and near the middle portion of the track of late.
“I told Miguel to get him out and away from the rail as quick as possible and that’s exactly what he did,” said Fawkes. “He rode him perfectly.”
As for Big Drama, Fawkes has fond memories of a career that was highlighted by his 1 1/2-length victory over Hamazing Destiny in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
“You know, the Sprint was the only Grade 1 win of his career,” Fawkes noted. “I won three of them with Sheer Drama.
“And to be honest, the Sprint might not have even been his best race. I remember he ran 1:20 and change and shattered the seven-furlong track record winning the Swale as a 3-year-old only to wind up getting disqualified and placed second to boot.”
Fawkes, who has been a mainstay on the South Florida circuit since taking out his trainer’s license in 1998, said he is planning on putting together a modest string headed by Fort Sam to stable in Kentucky this summer. Fort Sam is coming off a game entry-level allowance victory at Churchill Downs on April 29.
“I’ll probably keep my Florida-breds home – you just lose too much money the way the purses are structured if you run them in Kentucky – and try to pick out a group I think would fit there in the coming months because the purses in that area are just so lucrative,” said Fawkes. “Even in the summer.”
The Big Drama was the first of two overnight handicaps decided this weekend at Gulfstream along with Sunday’s Lady’s Island, a grass race for fillies and mares that was won in upset fashion by Tiffany Gold over the favored Mrs. Gambolini.
Tiffany Gold, a 4-year-old daughter of Speightster trained by Victor Barboza Jr., avenged her previous setback when finishing a tiring fourth, 4 1/4 lengths behind Mrs. Gambolini under similar conditions four weeks earlier. Mrs. Gambolini picked up an additional seven pounds and was the 125-pound highweight in the rematch.
Sneaky Sneaky mild favorite
Thursday’s main event is a 5 1/2-furlong optional-claiming and allowance dash for Florida-breds over the Tapeta track that offers a $43,000 purse. It has lured a very evenly matched field of nine, four of whom come into the race off recent victories.
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Sneaky Sneaky is listed as the tepid 7-2 morning-line favorite following a convincing 4 3/4-length conditioned claiming win over the synthetic strip, for which he received a career-best 79 Beyer Speed Figure. He will be joined in the lineup by Secret Empire, who won a similarly conditioned dash over the main track at Tampa Bay Downs in his previous start.
Last-out maiden winners Mackor and Sticky McShnickens figure to garner plenty of support, as should Coercive, who earned a lifetime-top 75 Beyer when second best over the surface with mid-priced conditioned claimers on March 13.
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