As usual, Caribou Club looks to rebound in Gulfstream's Canadian Turf
Glen Hill Farm’s multiple graded-stakes winning homebred Caribou Club, a disappointing sixth in his season debut three weeks ago, attempts to rebound against an overflow field of 14 in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Canadian Turf at Gulfstream Park.
The 54th running of the one-mile Canadian Turf for 4-year-olds and up is among 10 stakes, nine graded, worth $1.95 million on a blockbuster 14-race program highlighted by the Fountain of Youth (G2).
Caribou Club will be making his 24th career start and first at Gulfstream in the Canadian Turf. The 6-year-old City Zip gelding had never run in his home state of Florida until Feb. 8, when he tracked the leaders but never threatened finishing seventh under jockey Jose Ortiz in the 1 1/16-mile Tampa Bay (G3) at Tampa Bay Downs.
“The last race was a bit of a head scratcher because we thought he was ready,” Glen Hill Farm president Craig Bernick said. “He’s won a lot of races and he’s won races at a lot of racetracks. He’s won races with a lot of jockeys. We thought we had the best jockey that’s ever been on him riding, and it didn’t happen for him.
“We hadn’t thought of this race at Gulfstream until that last race. Maybe he wasn’t quite ready, who knows. He seems like he’s doing well, but we thought he was doing well last time,” Bernick added. “Over his career he’s put a couple of bad races in there that we really didn’t understand, but he’s always bounced back. I would look for him to run well on Saturday.”
Caribou Club has finished in the top three 16 times in 23 starts with $703,427 in purse earnings. He won stakes at 2, 4 and 5 including the 2018 Connaught Cup (G2) and Seabiscuit Handicap (G2) and 2019 Joe Hernandez (G3) and Baltimore-Washington International Turf Cup (G3). He also set course records in back-to-back victories last summer in the one-mile, 70-yard West Virginia Speaker’s Cup (1:37.09) and one-mile BWI Turf Cup (1:33.35).
“He’s won [stakes races] in California, he’s won in Maryland, he’s won in West Virginia, he’s won in Canada. He’s won stakes at Santa Anita, he’s won stakes at Del Mar. His first race in Florida was a couple weeks ago and he didn’t run well. I would hope on Saturday he kind of redeems himself,” Bernick said.
“His year last year got messed up when they canceled downhill racing in California and they postponed a bunch of races when [Santa Anita] closed,” he added. “He ended up going to Dubai as an afterthought, and he didn’t come out of that well and he didn’t run great in Tampa. His three races before the Tampa race were great, so hopefully he’ll come back to that. If he does, he should probably be pretty tough.”
Out of the Broken Vow mare Broken Dreams, Caribou Club has continued a rich family tradition for Ocala-based Glen Hill Farm as its second-largest earner behind Grade 1-winning multimillionaire Marketing Mix. His third dam, One Dreamer, won the 1994 Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1).
“He’s a horse that we’ve been associated with the family for many generations,” Bernick said. “I think we bred One Dreamer’s first three dams when she showed up, so it’s a long association. You worry about horses as they get older, but One Dreamer won the Breeders’ Cup when she was 6 and didn’t break her maiden until she was 4. Caribou Club’s mother, Broken Dreams, didn’t break her maiden until she was 4 and won graded races at 5 and 6.
“It is his fifth year of racing, which is a lot these days, but he hasn’t been over-raced,” he added. “I would think he should like that turf course. It’s a short stretch. He doesn’t have a big, sustained move but when they ask him to run he goes from kind of galloping to top gear very quickly. He’s run well on the California turf courses, which I kind of equate Gulfstream to, so I’m looking forward to seeing how he runs.”
Hatfield Stables and Ron Hatfield’s Krampus returns to defend his title in the Canadian Turf. It will be the 20th start but first for the 6-year-old gelding since being claimed from breeder William Schettine for $62,500 out of a fourth-place finish Jan. 4 at Gulfstream. Krampus tried three more graded-stakes after his win 11 months ago, finishing third in the Poker (G3) last June.
Calumet Farm homebred English Bee is set to make his 4-year-old debut following a solid 2019 campaign where the chestnut son of grass champion English Channel won four of eight starts including the Virginia Derby (G3), James W. Murphy on the Preakness (G1) undercard at Pimlico and Parx Fall Derby.
Trainer Graham Motion also nominated English Bee to the $200,000 Mac Diarmida (G2) going 1 3/8 miles, but opted to keep him at a distance where he owns four wins from six tries.
“He’s been very consistent, really; kind of hard-knocking, blue-collar horse. I think this is more of his trip,” Motion said. “I considered the other race going a mile and three-eighths, but I think a mile probably suits him better although he did win going a mile and an eighth in the Virginia Derby.”
English Bee exits the 1 1/16-mile Tropical Park Derby Dec. 28 at Gulfstream, racing in mid-pack before flattening out to be sixth. Hall of Famer Javier Castellano has the call.
“[He was a] little disappointing last time out but I think he’s doing really well. I watched him train yesterday and I think he looks great,” Motion said. “He’s had plenty of time to kind of recover from his last race, so I think this is a good fit for him.”
Flying Scotsman, winner of the 2018 Cecil B. DeMille (G3); Tropical Turf (G3) runner-up Gidu; 2018 Nearctic (G3) winner Hembree, an earner of $676,783 lifetime; stakes winner Louder Than Bombs, third in last winter’s Palm Beach (G3); 2019 Commonwealth Turf (G3) winner Mr Dumas; Sombeyay, a Grade 2 winner on dirt winless in three tries on turf with two seconds; Gemonteer, Hay Dakota Musical Heart are also entered, along with also-eligibles Joyful Heart and Thunder Ride.