Ready for Rye Gets Started Again in GP Sprint

In addition to being one of four graded stakes winners in Saturday’s $100,000 Gulfstream Park Sprint (G2), Chalk Racing’s Ready for Rye has the distinction of being the last horse to beat likely overwhelming race favorite X Y Jet.

The two horses met in the seven-furlong Swale (G2) last March, where X Y Jet stumbled out of the gate and was eased down the stretch to finish last, more than 32 lengths behind Ready for Rye, who sprang a mild upset at 6-1 in his fourth career start.

Since then, X Y Jet has reeled off four consecutive victories, the last two coming in the Mr. Prospector (G3) and Sunshine Millions Sprint, flirting with Gulfstream’s six-furlong track record both times. Ready for Rye has not started since finishing seventh in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1) Oct. 31.

They will break side-by-side from the middle of an eight-horse field assembled for the 38th running of the 6 ½-furlong GP Sprint, carded fourth on a 13-race Fountain of Youth program that features eight stakes, six of them graded.

“It just looked like a good place to start him back. We liked the distance for him first time coming back,” trainer Tom Albertrani said. “He ran well over Gulfstream last year so it’s just a good way to get him started back again and see how he does.”

Ready for Rye was second in his only other Gulfstream start, the six-furlong Spectacular Bid to open his 3-year-old season last January, two months prior to the Swale. He ran twice more on dirt, finishing third in the Bay Shore (G3) and Woody Stephens (G2), before being switched to the grass last summer.

“It was something we tried and he actually did very well. He won every start except for the Breeders’ Cup that we ran him over the turf and he seemed to handle it just fine,” Albertrani said. “It’s just something we’re always going to have in the back of our mind. We know he’s pretty versatile and we may want to try to see him back on the grass again sometime later this season.”

Ready for Rye debuted on grass with an optional claiming allowance win at Belmont Park, then captured the Quick Call and Allied Forces stakes entering the Breeders’ Cup, where he led through a half-mile before tiring.

He shows a string of steady works for Albertrani at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County.

“He’s doing super. We gave him a little freshening since the Breeders’ Cup and he’s really come around the last few weeks,” he said. “We feel he’s ready to make a start and we’ll see how we’ll do this weekend and make a plan. Eventually he may end up back on the grass again but we’re just going to keep our options open.”

Horse Racing Radio Network (HRRN), the exclusive radio partner of Gulfstream's Saturday stakes, will broadcast live Saturday between 4:30-6:30 p.m. on Sirius 145/XM 203 and be streamed live at www.horseracingradio.net.