Pay Any Price strong favorite in Bob Umphrey Turf Sprint

Pay Any Price looms as one of the strongest favorites on Saturday’s Summit of Speed program at Gulfstream Park, tabbed as the 3-5 morning-line favorite for the $75,000 Bob Umphrey Turf Sprint. There was a time shortly after claiming the 7-year-old gelding for $25,000 last July that Rich Averill and Matties Racing might have had serious doubts that their new acquisition would turn out to be such a bargain.

 

Averill thought he had made a wise transaction when he claimed Pay Any Prince out of a winning performance – that is, until getting the gelding back to trainer Ralph Ziadie’s barn at Gulfstream Park West.

 

“He was a mess. Mentally, he was in bad shape. The team has done an absolutely great job getting him to this point,” Averill said. “Before the races, he’d try to flip and wouldn’t load in the gate. When we first got him he wouldn’t come out of the shedrow. He was a rogue. Now, he’s not the greatest, but he’s a lot better than he was.”

 

Pay Any Price didn’t make his first start for his new connections until last November, finishing fifth in an optional claiming allowance at Gulfstream Park West. The son of Wildcat Heir went on to win three of his next four starts, including a Gulfstream course-record performance in the Silks Run Stakes March 11, when he ran five furlongs on turf in 53 3/5 seconds.

 

The speedy gelding was valiant in defeat in his most recent start in the $100,000 Jim McKay Turf Sprint at Pimlico May 19, setting a pressured pace along the rail before succumbing late to lose by a neck to Richard’s Boy.

 

“He grabbed his quarter in the race. Coming out of the gate he kind of stumbled and bumped with another horse. They sent me a picture after the race and it was nasty. For him to run as hard as he did, as much as he did, was amazing,” Averill said.

 

“It took him a while to come out of it. He’s back to himself now, but it was a pretty scary thing after the race. We didn’t know if he was going to be OK,” he added. “Fortunately, it was superficial on the outside. There was some swelling immediately but eventually came down.”

 

Edgard Zayas has the return mount on Pay Any Price, who is scheduled to meet eight rivals (not including two main-track-only entrants) in the five-furlong Umphrey Turf Sprint.

 

Averill Racing will also be represented on the Summit of Speed program with seven stakes by multiple-stakes winner R Angel Katelyn in the $75,000 Azalea and recent debut winner R Paper Chaser in the $100,000 Brave Raj.

 

 

There will be a Championship Meet feel in the jockey’s room at Gulfstream Park on Saturday when two of the winter’s top riders return to South Florida for the $1 million Summit of Speed.

 

Luis Saez captured his first Championship Meet title in 2016-17, dethroning five-time defending champion Javier Castellano. Both riders figure prominently during the 14-race Summit of Speed program, with mounts in six of seven stakes on the card.

 

Among Saez’s mounts are Curlin’s Approval in the $250,000 Princess Rooney (G2), Quijote in the $250,000 Smile Sprint (G3) and Hunka Burning Love in the $150,000 Carry Back (G3). Saez won the Hurricane Bertie (G3) and Royal Delta (G2) on Curlin’s Approval during the Championship Meet.

 

Saez will also be aboard Diamond Oops in the $100,000 Kiss a Native, Dia Maria in the $100,000 Brave Raj and Who’s the Lady in the $75,000 Azalea.

 

Set to be enshrined in the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame this summer in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Castellano is named on 9-5 morning-line favorite Imperial Hint in the Smile Sprint; Lightstream, the narrow 7-2 program choice in the Princess Rooney; Benefactor in the Carry Back, Bobby Ax in the Kiss a Native and Brahms Cat in the Azalea.

 

Castellano set a Championship Meet record with 132 wins in 2013-14, the third of his five consecutive titles. He has won four straight Eclipse Awards as North America’s leading jockey.

 

Saez (126) and Castellano (115) rank in the top eight in wins this year. Castellano is third with nearly $12 million in purse earnings, and Saez eighth at just over $6 million.

 

Also set to ride at Gulfstream on Saturday is Drayden Van Dyke, the Eclipse Award-winning apprentice of 2014, named on Birdatthewire in the Princess Rooney. Based in southern California, the 22-year-old Van Dyke returned to the saddle June 16 for the first time since suffering a compound fracture of his right arm in a Jan. 26 spill at Santa Anita.

 

           

Pinnacle Racing Stable’s Sweet Tooth Haven, a solid winner of her comeback race last month, makes her return to stakes competition in the $75,000 Azalea.

 

Moved to the barn of trainer David Fawkes for her 3-year-old campaign, Sweet Tooth Haven hadn’t run since Oct. 1 when she posted a 1 ½-length victory over older horses in an entry-level optional claiming allowance May 14 at Gulfstream.

 

She returns to face straight sophomore fillies in the Azalea, where she drew Post 3 of 10 and was made third choice on the morning line at odds of 9-2. Luca Panici, up for her recent win which also came at the Azalea’s seven furlongs, will ride.

 

“She ran big first time back and had a good work in between. She’s training good,” Fawkes said. “It had been a long time since she ran, and I didn’t have her before. Her late form [wasn’t good] but she trained good up to the race and she ran good, and she’s been training good since.”

 

Though the Azalea will be just her fifth career start, Sweet Tooth Haven has stakes experience having finished off the board in the Florida Sire Susan’s Girl and My Dear Girl last fall to cap her juvenile campaign.

 

“She’s easy-going, easy to train. No problem. She’s very aggressive in her training. She works good and does everything right,” Fawkes said. “When it comes to race time, she just kind of settles down and gets into a zone. She’s more aggressive in the morning than she is in the afternoon. She’s very smart. She knows when it’s race time.