Nicks Saddles Speechify in GP Sprint

Trainer Ralph Nicks will saddle Speechify in Saturday’s $100,000 Gulfstream Park Sprint (G3) with the hope that Team Valor International’s 5-year-old will be up to the challenge of adding another chapter in his inspiring story of resilience and courage.

Speechify, whose early career was compromised by a restriction of the epiglottis that led to a serious health issue, has been making up for lost time since making a winning debut at Gulfstream in August 2013. The son of Harlan’s Holiday enters Saturday’s 6 ½-furlong stakes with a record of five wins from seven dirt starts, including a triumph in the Mr. Prospector Stakes (G3) at Gulfstream on Dec. 27 in his graded-stakes debut.

“It shows what a good horse can overcome,” Nicks said. “Only the good ones survive and can handle that.”

Speechify was nursed back to health and has developed into a graded-stakes winner thanks to a strict diet of “soup.”

“He’s good. I’m sure the water will be a little deeper this time, but he’s doing well,” said Nicks, who awarded the return mount to Paco Lopez.

The manner in which Speechify has progressed suggests he still may not have reached his potential.

“I hope not, but everything has been a blessing so far,” said Nicks, whose trainee prepped for the Mr. Prospector with his first stakes victory in the Kenny Noe Jr. at Gulfstream Park West in November.

Speechify’s only sprint loss at Gulfstream came 11 months ago when he chased Happy My Way throughout a six-furlong allowance and finished second, 3 ½ lengths behind the victorious frontrunner.

Joe Orseno-trained Happy My Way is entered to clash a second time with Speechify in the Gulfstream Sprint. Since their last meeting, Sagamore Farm and Mel Paikoff’s 5-year-old gelding won the Sir Shackleton Stakes at Gulfstream and the Maryland Sprint Handicap (G3) at Pimlico, as well as finish a close second in the Vanderbilt (G1) at Saratoga. In his 2014 finale in the $350,000 DeFrancis Dash at Laurel, he was outsprinted for the early lead after breaking from the No. 1 post and rated off the pace before finishing a solid second behind Zee Bros. In his most recent start, he showed the way early before faltering late to finish third in the Sunshine Millions Sprint at Gulfstream on Jan.17.

“I don’t know if it was the rail. I think he was the best horse. He had a minor bruise going into the race and I had to back up on him a bit. I trained him with a bar shoe and took the bar shoe off for the race. He tried. Joey said it wasn’t the foot that beat him. He said the horse felt very sound. He actually thumped that day, which he never does,” said Orseno of the condition usually caused by dehydration. “If he didn’t thump, I think he would have won, even though I backed up on his training a little.”

Although Happy My Way showed the way during the early stages of his last race, his connections have left open the possibility of rating the son of Wilko.

“He’s a year older. He’s like Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. When you get older, you have to do things a little differently. Joe Bravo and I talked about it and we decided that since we know he can rate that maybe this year we might try sitting on him a bit instead of using his speed early and making him run hard,” Orseno said. “We’re going to take that into consideration when we handicap the race.”

If Mean Season returns from a layoff of almost a year in the impressive form he displayed in his three lifetime starts, Bravo may have no choice but to rate Happy My Way. Rashard Lewis and Jake Ballis’ 5-year-old son of Henny Hughes produced a trio of dazzling front-running victories before sustaining an injury in his left front leg. The Bill Mott-trained Kentucky-bred sprinter won his three races by a combined 20 ¼ lengths while never being tested. Irad Ortiz Jr. will be aboard for Mean Season’s stakes debut Saturday.

Red and Black Stable’s Weekend Hideaway, who pressed Happy My Way’s pace before drawing clear by seven lengths to win the Sunshine Millions Sprint, drew the No. 9 post in the nine-horse field for the Gulfstream Sprint. Trained by Phil Serpe, the 5-year-old New York-bred is slated to be ridden by defending three-time Championship Meet titlist Javier Castellano.

Jacks or Better Farm’s C. Zee prepped for the Gulfstream Sprint with a determined second-place finish in a $100,000 optional claimer at Gulfstream on Feb. 8 while making his first start since finishing second behind Work All Week in the Phoenix (G3) at Keeneland on Oct. 3. Work All Week came right back to capture the $1.5 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) at Santa Anita on Nov. 1.  C. Zee is back with trainer Stanley Gold, who had saddled him for multiple stakes victories and a second-place finish behind Wildcat Red in the Hutcheson (G3) last year before the Florida-bred colt went on the road for a three-race stint with Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito.

Edgard Zayas has the return mount aboard the 4-year-old son of Elusive Bluff.

Prudhoe Bay, the Jersey Shore (G3) winner who is set for a return to main-track action after finishing fourth in the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint; City of Weston, who finished two lengths behind C. Zee in a third-place finish in a recent optional claimer; and Puntrooskie, a stakes winner in Canada who finished fifth in the Sunshine Millions Sprint; round out the field.

Source: Gulfstream Park