Gulfstream Park news: Diamond King debuts for Servis in Swale Stakes

Diamond King hasn’t exactly taken his new trainer’s breath away while training for a start in Saturday’s $200,000 Swale Stakes (G3), one of five graded stakes for 3-year-olds on a 12-race program headlined by the $350,000 Holy Bull (G2).

The son of Quality Road, who was recently transferred to John Servis’ stable at Palm Meadows, breezed five furlongs last month in 1:02.90, rated fourth of five works timed at the distance at Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County.

“He’s been training all right, I don’t want to say he’s lazy, but I think he’s a horse that needs competition to get him to do more,” Servis said. “I worked him, but his work was just OK. I worked him by himself, and I don’t think he’s too keen on that. I talked to (jockey) Frankie (Pennington), because I wasn’t impressed with his work, and Frankie said, ‘That’s him. He won’t do too much by himself.”

Diamond King, however, has been very productive on the racetrack in the afternoon, showing enough promise by winning three of four races that D.J. Stable bought a share in the Kentucky-bred colt from Cash Is King LLC and LC Racing last month.

“They’re just like people. You have practice players and you have team players, that’s what I relate that to,” Servis said. “He can be as lazy as he wants in practice as long as he shows up on game day.”

Diamond King, who was purchased for $235,000 at the 2017 Fasig-Tipton Mid-Atlantic 2-year-old-in training sale, won his first two starts at Parx, winning a 5 ½-furlong race by two lengths in September and a 6 ½-furlong allowance by 3 ½ lengths in October. He had the misfortune of clipping heels and unseating his rider in the Kentucky Jockey Club (G2) at Churchill Downs in November before returning to his winning ways with a 1 ½-length triumph in the seven-furlong Heft Stakes at Laurel Park Dec. 30.

“I’m anxious to see how he runs and go from there and see what we got,” Servis said.

Diamond King, rated third at 7-2 in the morning-line, will be ridden again by Frankie Pennington in a race Servis hopes will lead to bigger opportunities on the Road to the Triple Crown.

“He’s not a very big horse, but he has a really big stride on him,” said Servis, who saddled Smarty Jones for victories in the 2004 Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness (G1). “I think he’ll stretch out. That’s probably where he’ll show his best, stretching out.”

Lael Stables’ stakes-winning Tricks to Doo, coming off back-to-back impressive performances, steps up in class and stretches out for his first try against graded company in the Swale.

A bay son of Grade 1 winner Into Mischief trained by Arnaud Delacour, Tricks to Doo ships in from Tampa Bay Downs for the Swale, for which he drew Post 2 in a field of six 3-year-olds and was rated second at 3-1 in the morning line behind 7-5 favorite Strike Power.

“He’s doing very well. We’ve been happy with him,” Delacour said. “We’ve kind of spaced out his races on purpose. We freshened him up a little bit and he’s been breezing very well at Tampa, so I think he’s in good form. It’s not an easy race, but I’m excited to be there.”

Tricks to Doo has made each of his first three starts at six furlongs, running third in his unveiling last fall at Keeneland and coming back 20 days later to graduate by 5 ¾ lengths over stablemate Talon at Laurel Park, despite racing with a broken rein.

In his juvenile finale, Tricks to Doo led from gate to wire to capture the Inaugural Stakes by 7 ¼ lengths Dec. 16 at Tampa. Since then he has had five works over the Oldsmar track, most recently a half-mile move in 48.20 seconds Jan. 28 that ranked fourth of 70 horses.

“He’s a horse that has really moved forward,” Delacour said. “In his first race he was a little bit green so I was really pleased the second time to see the kind of performance he put on at Laurel, especially because Talon was second and I really like Talon, also. That was a good line for me. The last time at Tampa he won very professionally and it was an exciting race.”

Delacour said how Tricks to Doo performs in the Swale will have an impact in determining if he will put the colt on the Triple Crown trail. Out of the Polish Numbers mare Doolittle, he was purchased for $600,000 as a 2-year-old in training last March in Ocala.

“I’m undecided right now. We don’t really have to make a commitment or think about a special program right now,” Delacour said. “We just want to see if he can stretch out. It will be very interesting to see how he handles the seven-eighths and we’ll take it from there.

“That’s a little bit what we do. We have a very conservative approach about things,” he added. “One step at a time. He broke his maiden and won a nice stake and then we go on to a Grade 3 and see where the horse will lead us, really.”

Todd Pletcher-trained Audible and Pony Up will be tested in Saturday’s $350,000 Holy Bull (G2) on the Roads to the March 31 Florida Derby (G1) and Triple Crown.

Audible will make his two-turn debut in the 1 1/16-mile Holy Bull after winning his last two starts across a one-turn mile at Aqueduct for owners WinStar Farm, China Horse Club and SF Racing. The son of Into Mischief graduated Nov. 15 against fellow New York-breds before scoring by 9 ¾ lengths in open company in a Dec. 6 optional claiming allowance. Audible previously finished third in his debut at Belmont Sept. 27.

“He got away a little sluggishly in his debut and fell back but made a decent run.  His next two races were very good. I like the way he’s training,” Pletcher said. “He gets a little bit of a class test in the Holy Bull, but we’re excited to see how he handles it.”

Audible was bought for $500,000 out of the Fasig-Tipton Florida Sale at Gulfstream in March.

“He’s a horse that was purchased for a hefty prices at one of the 2-year-olds-in training sales, so he came in with high expectations,” Pletcher said. “Hopefully, he’s going to fulfill those.”

Calumet Farm’s Pony Up, who is multiple stakes-placed on turf, is scheduled to make his first start on dirt since finishing second over Gulfstream’s main track July 2.

“We’ve been flirting with the idea of trying him on the dirt and we just kind of felt like this was the time to give it a whirl and see if he fits,” Pletcher said. “We’ll see if he can jump on the Derby trail or not.”