HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – After timing 221 workers on Saturday and another 105 more here the following morning, Monday was a predictably easy day for the Gulfstream Park clocking crew with only eight horses on the tab. But the brief list was certainly noteworthy since it included the only reigning Breeders’ Cup winner stabled on the grounds, Soul of an Angel, who got back to work for the first time since upsetting the Filly and Mare Sprint at Del Mar more than six weeks earlier.
Coming out just minutes after the second renovation break over a freshly harrowed track, Soul of an Angel cruised an easy three furlongs in 38.18 seconds, completing her final quarter in 25.04, before easing up a half-mile into the turn in 52.07 with her trainer, Saffie Joseph Jr., and principal owner, Mark Cornett of the C2 Racing Stable, looking on.
Soul of an Angel is expected to close her potentially championship 2024 campaign in the one-mile Rampart Stakes on Dec. 26.
“We took it easy with her today because it was her first work back after getting a break following the Breeders’ Cup,” Joseph said about an hour after the work. “We wanted to get two works into her before the Rampart. She’ll go a half-mile next Sunday. She’s had a hard campaign and she’s pretty fit.”
Joseph said plans are up in the air for Soul of an Angel after the Rampart, although he noted that the rich Saudi Cup is potentially in the cards with the Grade 1 Madison at Keeneland to be the main goal if she stays home this winter.
“She’s not going to run around two turns again,” Joseph said. “The Saudi Cup is a mile and one-eighth, but around only one turn.”
Joseph also feels Soul of an Angel should be the favorite to win the Eclipse Award in the female sprinter division.
“I would think, realistically, she should be the champion,” Joseph said. “She won the big one, the Breeders’ Cup, while beating both Society and Ways and Means in the process. She also has two other pretty impressive graded stakes wins, even if some voters don’t consider the [one-mile] Ruffian a sprint, and I feel her overall résumé is better than any of the other fillies she has to beat out for the award.”
The day after Christmas will be a big one here for Joseph, who along with Soul of an Angel will send out the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner White Abarrio in the Grade 3 Mr. Prospector as a final prep for the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational four weeks later. On Sunday, White Abarrio worked five furlongs in 1:02.04, completing his final quarter in 22.88 while readily running down and drawing away from a pair of overmatched mates before easing up after six panels in 1:14.38.
“We sat him behind two horses, his job was to quicken by and I thought he did it really, really well,” Joseph said. “I had his last quarter in 22 and 4. Not only that, he galloped out another furlong in 12 and change, which is unusual for this track, even when it’s fast, which it really wasn’t” Sunday.
White Abarrio was an easy-as-can-be 10 1/4-length winner in his first start since returning to Joseph’s barn this summer under allowance and optional-claiming conditions going seven furlongs here Nov. 22.
“Abarrio was coming off a race where he didn’t run in the Met Mile, so you never know what to expect when they come back, but his return was awesome and all we are seeing since that race are the good signs,” Joseph said.
Joseph will certainly be the busiest guy around here Saturday, having entered 19 horses on the 11-race Pegasus World Cup preview card, including five of the seven fillies – R Harper Rose, Intrepid Daydream, Haulin Ice, Spirit Wind, and Mystic Lake – in the $140,000 Sugar Swirl Stakes. Joseph did confirm that Spirit Wind will definitely be scratched for an upcoming stakes at Oaklawn Park, as will Haulin Ice if the race she was entered for on Monday fills for Saturday at Oaklawn as well.
Local stakes winner Launch, from the potent barn of trainer Jorge Delgado, and Socially Selective, for trainer Bill Mott, are the only two other fillies entered in the six-furlong Sugar Swirl.
Asher’s Edge ran big last time
Thursday’s main event is a $43,000 allowance and optional-claiming event restricted to Florida-breds. It lured just six starters topped by likely favorite Asher’s Edge, who comes off an eventful third-place finish under similar conditions 33 days earlier.
Trained by David Fawkes, Asher’s Edge dropped further back off the pace than usual after hitting the gate and getting knocked around at the start before rallying to finish just one length behind gate-to-wire winner Esperon. Despite the trouble, Asher’s Edge posted a career-best 82 Beyer Speed Figure.
Black Fury, a distant second behind Asher’s Edge while making a promising debut over the Tapeta course on Oct. 4, will get a second chance at that rival on Thursday and is among the other key contenders, along with Adios Now, who returns locally off a layoff following a couple of competitive efforts against stakes opposition in her two most recent starts over the synthetic surfaces at Woodbine and Presque Isle Downs.
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