Salmanazar wins turf debut in Gulfstream's Texas Glitter Stakes

Starlight Racing’s speedster Salmanazar, racing for the first time on grass, jumped out to a quick lead and never looked back to earn his first career stakes victory in Saturday’s $75,000 Texas Glitter at Gulfstream Park.

The fourth running of the Texas Glitter, a five-furlong turf sprint for 3-year-olds, shared the spotlight on a 13-race program with the $100,000 Hal’s Hope (G3) for 4-year-olds and up going a mile on dirt.

Salmanazar ($12.60), making his first start in 10 months, covered the distance in 55.84 seconds over a firm turf course. It was two lengths back to Shangroyal, who nosed out Salmanazar’s Todd Pletcher-trained stablemate, the 8-5 favorite Barbarossa, for second.

A son of 2011 Preakness (G1) winner Shackleford, Salmanazar had only raced twice previously, both on dirt, debuting with a maiden special weight victory going 4 ½ furlongs last April at Keeneland. He was given time off after finishing seventh in the Tremont Stakes and a strong recent breeze over the turf at Palm Beach Downs led Pletcher to try the surface switch.

“He showed in his debut at Keeneland he’s a fast horse with a win going 4 ½,” Pletcher said. “The strategy was pretty straightforward. From the rail we wanted to make sure he broke sharply and he was able to do that. I thought he ran very well.

“He ran solid fractions and on this turf course, it seems like going five-eighths you want to be involved early because sometimes it can be hard to close a lot of ground,” he added. “We felt like speed’s his weapon and we’d tried to utilize it.”

Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez, aboard in each of the two previous starts, sent Salmanazar to the front from the gate, sizzling through a quarter-mile in 21.52 seconds and a half in 44.55, trailed closest by 13-1 long shot Shangroyal. Salmanazar remained in command turning for home and maintained his advantage after straightening for home, as Barbarossa came to challenge Shangroyal for second.

Bourbon Currency, Clouded Judgement, Wildcat’s Legacy, Dial One and Reed Kan completed the order of finish.

“He broke out of there really fast. That was what Todd was expecting,” Velazquez said. “He warmed up good. Todd said, ‘Let him go out of there running. Go to the lead, and he’ll be pretty tough.’ That’s what happened.”

Pletcher was pleased with the effort of Barbarossa in his stakes debut off a neck loss in a 7 ½-furlong allowance Dec. 23 at Gulfstream.

“Actually I thought he got his nose down for second but he just missed a tough head-bob. I think five [furlongs] is just a tick too short for him,” he said. “We’re sort of looking for the right options but especially for a New York-bred he’s a quality horse and hopefully when we get back up north and get back in against New York-breds he should have a good season.”

Saturday’s win was Pletcher’s first in the Texas Glitter, named for the horse he trained to 11 wins, nine of them in stakes, and $826,077 in purse earnings from 37 starts from 1998-2002. Among his biggest victories were the 2002 Hollywood Turf Express (G3), 2000 Laurel Dash (G3) and 1999 Spectacular Bid (G3), the latter at Gulfstream.

“Texas Glitter is kind of an all-time favorite. He was a gifted sprinter and was able to run some big races on both turf and dirt. He’s certainly one of the fastest horses we’ve ever trained,” Pletcher said. “I don’t know if it’s a sign of old age or what when you’re winning races named after horses you trained years ago.”