Mshawish Overcomes Trouble in Fort Lauderdale
Mshawish earned 9-5 favoritism for Saturday’s $200,000 Fort Lauderdale (G2) at Gulfstream Park on the strength off his thoroughly convincing victory in the El Prado Stakes last month.
The 5-year-old son of Medaglia d’Oro was the beneficiary of a dream trip in the El Prado last time out that he would not receive in Saturday’s 1 1/16-mile turf event, but the Todd Pletcher trainee still found a way to prevail over 11 rivals under adverse circumstances.
“I don’t think many horses would have won with that type of trip, so it’s a real credit to the horse,” Pletcher said. “He’s a very, very talented horse.”
Mshawish has a reputation for being rather headstrong, which can make a jockey’s job considerably more difficult when things don’t go as planned. Javier Castellano had his hands full in the 58th running of the Fort Lauderdale when his mount was unable to settle behind horses in the early going, as he had been able to do in the El Prado.
Well placed along the backstretch a few lengths off pacesetter Silver Freak, Mshawish became unsettled when longshot Howe Great suddenly made an early move outside of him. Castellano had all he could do to prevent the Kentucky-bred from running off with him, but Mshawish continued to grab the bit while advancing on the far turn. Leaving the turn into the stretch, Mshawish began to drift out and entered the stretch much closer to the outside rail than the inside rail. Despite being rank throughout the race and losing valuable ground, Mshawish still responded when Castellano called on him in the stretch run, rallying past tiring rivals and holding off a strong late bid by Grand Tito to prevail by a neck.
“It was pretty tough today. This is a horse that is a little difficult to ride. You need to cover him up and unfortunately today he was a little more in the clear. A couple of jockeys smooched a little bit to be in a forward position and I just tried to cover up my horse the best I can,” Castellano said. “The way he did it today, I was very impressed, because he fought a lot in the beginning but still fought at the end. He really gives you everything he has. He deserved to win the race today.”
Mshawish ran 1 1/16 miles over a firm course in 1:41.14. Grand Tito, a 13-1 outsider ridden by Jose Lezcano, rallied for second on the inside to finish second, 2 ¼ lengths clear of 46-1 Fredericksburg and jockey joe Bravo. Za Approval, the 3-1 second choice ridden by Joel Rosario, finished fourth, another head back.
Mshawish, a Group 2 winner in Dubai, earned $115,320 for Al Shaqab Stable while winning his fifth race an 16 career starts.
“It was not exactly we had drawn it up. There were some strange riding tactics down the backside. (At the top of the stretch) he kind of drifted a little bit. He kind of got settled in down the backside when that horse came outside of him uncovered again,” Pletcher said. “He’s an extremely talented horse. He needs to be covered up a little bit. He never really got great cover today and because of that he never got turned off.”
Pletcher said Mshawish would be pointed to the 1 1/8-mile $300,000 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap (G1) on Feb. 7.
“I don’t think distance is an issue, as long as we can get some cover and get him turned off a bit (early),” Pletcher said.
Source: Gulfstream Park