Munjaz Impressive in U.S. Debut
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Shadwell Stable’s Munjaz made an auspicious United States debut Sunday at Gulfstream Park, where the Kiaran McLaughlin-trained 3-year-old colt swept to a four-length triumph in the featured eighth race.
The son of Sea The Stars, who had raced four times in England with a win, a second, and a third, hadn’t races since finishing off-the-board in the Derby Trial at Lingfield in May, but he showed no rust while swooping from last to first in Sunday’s entry-level optional claiming allowance.
“Sheikh Hamdan actually likes this colt and asked for him to come here. We’re very grateful to get him. This could be a really good horse,” McLaughlin said. “This was just a never-won-two-life, but hopefully he’ll keep going and get into stakes company.”
McLaughlin had nominated Munjaz for next Saturday’s Tropical Park Derby but opted to take the conservative route for his first U.S. start. Favored at even-money in a field of 10, Munjaz got away from the gate last in the 1 1/16-mile turf event and was patiently rated by jockey Julien Leparoux. The English-bred colt made progress on the outside along the backstretch and around the final turn before responding to Leparoux’s mild urging with a powerful run through the stretch.
“He’s a European horse, and they break slow over there. He kind of hesitated a little bit, but he put me in the race right away and I was sitting in a great position. He won pretty easy. I had a ton left,” said Leparoux following his first triumph during the Championship Meet from 14 mounts.
Munjaz ($4.20) ran 1 1/16 miles over firm turf in 1:42.60. Lawyer Jim, the 5-1 fourth choice ridden by Paco Lopez, finished second, a half-length ahead of 41-1 outsider Purincat and jockey Eric Rodriguez.
Munjaz was sent to McLaughlin last summer at Saratoga.
“He’s trained extremely well and he’s very well bred,” McLaughlin said. “He wants farther. He was on the Derby trail over there. He ran in the Epsom Derby Trial, but it didn’t go well, so they decided to send him over there. We’ll look at a non-winners-if-two-other-than (allowance). I wish we’d gotten him started earlier for some of the 3-year-old stakes, but we hope next year to have a graded-stake horse.”
Who’s Hot: Jockey Javier Castellano scored a double-win day with March Reward ($7.40) in the fifth race and Giant’s Jewel ($14.60) in the seventh.
Live Racing Resumes at Gulfstream on Tuesday.
A live racing program will be offered this Tuesday with a Rainbow 6 carryover of $100,245.71 and a Super Hi-5 Carryover of $6,400.87. Sunday’s winning combination of 3-7-9-6-9-1 for the Rainbow 6 returned $8,698.88 to multiple ticketholders.
Rainbow 6 carryover: $100,245.71
Super Hi-5 Carryover: $6,400.87
Source: Gulfstream Park Communications
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