HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The month of December has already been a good one for trainer George Weaver, starting with Sacred Wish’s upset victory over Gina Romantica in the Grade 1 Matriarch at Del Mar. On Saturday, Weaver is hoping his December will get even better when he sends out the improving Live High Live Low against a full field of 11 other 3-year-olds in the $140,000 Tropical Park Derby.
Live High Live Low is coming off the two best races of his career, at least from a Beyer Speed Figure standpoint, with second-place finishes in the Carle Place Stakes and a tough second-level optional-claiming and allowance race when facing older rivals earlier this fall at Aqueduct. Both races were decided at six furlongs on turf, with Live High Live Low earning 91 and 93 Beyers, respectively, easily his best numbers in a career that began on the main track here last winter.
“He’s figuring out how to run and his form definitely has been improving the last few races,” said Weaver, who has a full barn of 32 horses bedded down at Palm Beach Downs again this winter. “He’s running great numbers and even though he will be stretching out to a mile and a sixteenth, he’s been effective around two turns in the past. It just made sense to take a long look at the last 3-year-old spot of the year.”
Live High Live Low will break from the rail under Edgard Zayas, who guided the son of Coal Front to a wire-to-wire starter-allowance win at 1 1/16 miles over the Tapeta course in May. And from that post, Weaver is making no bones about his strategy on Saturday.
“The Gulfstream turf course is pretty glib, he’s very handy, so I’ll be telling the rider to put him in the race, either on the front or close to it, right from the start,” Weaver said.
Silent Heart, easy winner of the Showing Up Stakes over a good course here on Nov. 2, and the two-time Grade 3-placed Cugino figure to vie for favoritism in the Tropical Park Derby, which shares top billing Saturday along with its filly counterpart, the Tropical Park Oaks.
Weaver has already gotten his Championship meet off to a good start, with Turbulent Force winning a maiden special weight dash making his career debut a week earlier. Last winter, Weaver, who eclipsed the 1,000-win milestone earlier this year, saddled 14 winners from 60 starters during the Championship session.
“We don’t have an endless supply of horses like some barns do, bunches of live maidens and horses with live conditions, so we try to spot horses well and go with the ebbs and flows,” Weaver said. “The last three months have been very good to us. We’re just going to try to keep it rolling.”
As for Sacred Wish, who finished second in the Grade 1 Coaching Club Oaks racing on the dirt in 2023, Weaver said she’s back in South Florida at Palm Beach Downs, and if all goes well, the $500,000 Pegasus Filly and Mare Turf on Jan. 25 is on the radar for her 2025 bow.
Awesome Train vs. Fla.-breds
Awesome Train, who has suddenly found his top form this fall, tops a field of eight Florida-breds going a mile on the main track in Friday’s $43,000 headliner.
Awesome Train will return to statebred competition after defeating open company under a $35,000 claiming tag on Nov. 22, posting far and away his lifetime best Beyer, an 85. In his previous start, Awesome Train outran his odds facing Florida-breds for the first time this season when finishing third at 38-1 in the one-mile Gil Campbell Memorial Handicap.
Other top contenders in Friday’s main event include Raging Fury, second best going seven panels under similar conditions four weeks ago, and Lasso, who has finished second to Awesome Train and most recently Raging Fury in his two starts since being transferred to trainer Jorge Delgado’s barn during the summer.
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