River Seven Back on Dirt in Harlan's Holiday

One thing about a 2-year-old colt by Johannesburg made him particularly attractive to trainer Nick Gonzalez at the Fasig-Tipton Florida Sale at Palm Meadows in March 2012.  “One of the attractions, obviously, was that he was an Ontario-bred and we were thinking long term that we had all those opportunities,” said Gonzalez, who is based at Woodbine, the suburban Toronto racetrack, for the majority of the racing season. “And I knew the mother. Roger Attfield trained the mother and I knew she was versatile.”

River Seven, who was purchased by the Tucci Stable for $60,000, developed after being gelded into a solid stakes performer north of the border, where he has won stakes on Polytrack and turf and finished second in two legs of Canada’s Triple Crown this year. His runner-up finish in the $500,000 Prince of Wales came on dirt at Fort Erie. “When we’re at Woodbine there are only two kinds of tracks – Polytrack and turf. We did run him in the second jewel of our Triple Crown at a mile and three-sixteenths at Fort Erie in the Prince of Wales, and he ran one of his best races,” Gonzalez said. “He’s a good horse and I’ve always looked forward to running him on the dirt again.” Gonzalez is looking forward to saddling River Seven for a start on Gulfstream’s main track in Sunday’s $100,000 Harlan’s Holiday. The 3-year-old gelding is coming off a pair of turf stakes victories, including a half-length victory in the Commonwealth Turf (G3) at Churchill Downs last month.

“We’ll see how he stacks up against the best horses down here,” Gonzalez said. “It’s going to point us in a direction. He’s either going to go back to turf if these horses are too much for him or maybe we’ll get lucky like we did when we went to Churchill Downs and he shows he stacks up against the best horses in the United States like he does in Canada. That’s what we’re hoping for.”

River Seven, who is scheduled to be ridden by Joe Rocco Jr., has worked well over the Gulfstream Park main track in preparation for the Harlan’s Holiday, which has also attracted Csaba and Neck ‘n Neck, rated 1-2 in the morning line at 5-2 and 3-1, respectively.

“The horse is in very good shape. There’s not going to be any excuses that you didn’t have a horse that wasn’t 100 percent, because he’s going into the race the way we want him to,” said Gonzalez, whose gelding is rated fourth at 5-1 in the eight-horse field. “If you want to take on the best horses, you have to have your horse in the best shape, and I think that’s where we’re at.”