Juveniles share spotlight in Kiss a Native, Brave Raj

Backed by a history of success with their own modestly bred young horses, Jacks or Better Farm looks to add to its legacy with contenders in each of the juvenile stakes that help comprise the 14-race Summit of Speed program Saturday at Gulfstream Park.

 

The $100,000 Brave Raj for 2-year-olds and $100,000 Kiss a Native for 2-year-old fillies are among seven stakes worth $1 million on the card highlighted by the $250,000 Princess Rooney (G2) for females 3 and up at seven furlongs, $250,000 Smile Sprint (G3) for 3-year-olds and up at six furlongs, and the $150,000 Carry Back (G3) for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs.

 

First race post time is 11:55 a.m.

 

Slacks of Course and filly Diamonds R Trump, both trained by Ralph Nicks, will represent Jacks or Better, each coming off 4 ½-furlong maiden victories at Gulfstream. Slacks of Course takes a gutsy front-running triumph by a nose in his April 20 unveiling into the Kiss a Native, while Diamonds R Trump enters the Brave Raj off a one-length debut score May 18.

 

“They’re both first-time winners, they’re both training fine and everybody’s in with winners for the first time in general,” Nicks said. “If they’re fast enough, they’ll run well.”

 

Slacks of Course and Diamonds R Trump each took advantage of a good break to establish early position and go on to win. Diamonds R Trump’s win came in 51.84 seconds, faster than her male stablemate ran in his debut victory (52.03), both coming over fast dirt tracks.

 

"[The break] was more important going 4 ½ than it is going 5 ½,” Nicks said, “because now you’re running to the regular wire instead of the short wire.”

 

Slacks of Course and Diamonds R Trump are by the stallions Awesome of Course and Hear No Evil, whose progeny include champion filly Awesome Feather and graded winners Jackson Bend and Fort Loudon for Fred and Jane Brei’s Ocala, Fla.-based Jacks or Better Farm.

 

“Fred’s success rate kind of speaks for itself,” Nicks said. “He seems to come up with nice horses quite frequently.”

 

So, too, does seven-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Todd Pletcher, Gulfstream’s spring meet leader who will also send out a pair of maiden winners for their stakes debut – Dial One in the Kiss a Native and Classy Dancer in the Brave Raj.

 

Both Dial One and Classy Dancer will also be trying dirt for the first time, having earned their diplomas with five-furlong wins over Gulfstream’s turf course. Dial One cruised by four lengths as the favorite May 20, while Classy Dancer was also a popular 1 ¾-length winner June 10.

 

“I thought they both ran well,” Pletcher said. “Classy Dancer seems like she’s always trained fine on the dirt so we’ll give her a try there and I think Dial One, it seemed like he won despite maybe not loving the turf. He’s also trained well on the dirt so we felt like those two, timing-wise and based on the way they’ve been training on the dirt, made sense.”

 

Robert LaPenta’s Dial One is by Florida Derby (G1) winner Dialed In out of the War Front mare Wild One. Siena Farm homebred Classy Dancer is a daughter of champion sprinter Speightstown, also trained by Pletcher, out of the Dixie Union mare Tizsotrue.

 

“They had both trained like they were capable of running well first time out and it seemed like they both went over there and did everything correctly, broke alertly and put themselves in good spots,” Pletcher said. “They came into us early and because of that they were able to get ready to run early in the year and take advantage of that precocity. We’re hoping they can continue to develop and improve as they stretch out.”

 

Pletcher and jockey Tyler Gaffalione, running away with the Gulfstream spring meet titles, will team up in both juvenile races.

 

Recent Gulfstream maiden winners Bobby Ax, Diamond Oops and Uncle Runt are also entered in the Kiss a Native. Marco Thoroughbred Corp.’s Uncle Runt graduated by 1 ¼ lengths May 12 for trainer Ron Spatz at odds of 104-1, returning $210.20.