Power Alert Tries Stakes Foes in Silks Run
After impressing in his stateside debut, Brian Lynch’s Power Alert (AUS) will make his first North American stakes start in Saturday’s $75,000 Silks Run at Gulfstream Park.
A 5-year-old son of Alert (ARG), Power Alert was given a second chance at racing by coming to the United States. Although he won four of 13 starts in Australia, including the $61,000 Wellington Boot, a Class 3 race at Wagga, the gelding struggled with bleeding during his races. Lynch’s brother, a racing superintendent Down Under, called his transplanted sibling to give him a tip about the horse, whom he believed could benefit from Lasix.
“My brother works at a track down there (in Australia),” Lynch said. “He’s a superintendent and watched him train each day. If you bleed once in Australia, you’re ruled off for 30 days, and if you bleed a second time, you get barred for life. So he bled once and got ruled off for 30 days, and rather than have him barred for life, they thought it’d be better to take the opportunity to get him over here (in the United States) and get him on some Lasix and see if that didn’t help him.”
It certainly has helped so far, as Power Alert has thrived under Lynch’s care. In his first start for his new trainer, he outshined a classy group of turf sprinters in an allowance at Gulfstream on Dec. 21. The athletic grey roan pressed the pace before drawing off under a strong hand ride from Julien Leparoux to earn a 1 ¾-length victory.
“I had a feeling that he would have that sort of speed,” Lynch said. “What impressed me was the way he relaxed up on the pace. He was up there, sat off that horse nicely, moved to him, moved along pretty quick, and he just seemed to be doing it so easy. And he was so rate-able. It wasn’t like he was rank up there fighting for the lead. He just got up alongside of him, pressured him, and put him away.”
Since that race, Power Alert has turned in eye-opening works at Gulfstream’s satellite training facility Palm Meadows, three of them bullets, including a 5-furlong move over the facility’s turf course on Jan. 30 in which he covered the distance in 57.75 seconds. He most recently breezed 4 furlongs in 50.30 seconds on March 9, the third-best of 33 workers.
“He’s a very fast horse, a very fast horse,” Lynch said. “He’s an easy horse to train. He’s got no quirkiness to him. He’s just pretty straightforward.”
Lynch hopes the Silks Run will set his trainee up well for a multi-state summer stakes schedule.
“I just thought, after the way he ran the first time, we’d give him a little time before we ran him back. From here, he’ll go straight to the Shakertown (G3) at Keeneland (on April 4), so, timing-wise, this race will set him up a little bit better for a summer campaign. Then he’s got a race on Derby day (G3 Twin Spires Turf Sprint), and then he’s going to race on Belmont Day (G3 Jaipur Invitational) in a perfect world.”
Julien Leparoux retains the mount aboard Power Alert. The duo will break from post eight in the five-furlong Silks Run, the 11th of 12 races on Saturday’s card.
Trainer Eddie Plesa, Jr. entered a pair of runners in the Silks Run, including the 4-year-old Yes I’m Lucky, who has not raced since winning the Mr. Light Stakes at Gulfstream last April. The son of Yes It’s True has found success on both turf and dirt, winning four stakes and finishing second in the Sapling Stakes (G3) at Monmouth Park. He has posted five works since January, most recently breezing 4 furlongs in 49.40 seconds on March 7 at Gulfstream Park West. The other Plesa entrant is Prudhoe Bay, winner of the Jersey Shore (G3) at Monmouth last August who most recently finished fourth in the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint on Feb. 7.
Amelia’s Wild Ride and Bold Thunder, the winner and third-place finisher in the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint, also return in the Silks Run. Amelia’s Wild Ride, a son of D’wildcat, has won three of five starts on turf, while Bold Thunder captured the Turf Dash Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs on Jan. 10. Stormy Rush, Golden Rifle, recent Gulfstream allowance winner Mongolian Saturday, and City of Weston (main track only) round out the field.
Source: Gulfstream Park