Sibelius gets 1st graded-stakes win in Mr. Prospector

Sibelius closely stalked the early pace and drew away from his 10 rivals in the stretch to capture Saturday’s Grade 3, $125,000 Mr. Prospector at Gulfstream Park, collecting his first graded-stakes success.

The late-developing 4-year-old gelding owned by Jun Park and Delia’s Nash ran seven furlongs in 1:23.04 under Junior Alvarado to score by 2 1/4 lengths in the seven-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds and up.

Jeremiah O'Dwyer, who trains the winner, said the son of Not This Time had shown sharp improvement after being given a short rest following the Bet on Sunshine Stakes on Nov. 13 at Churchill Downs.

"After we ran at Churchill, we backed off him for a couple of weeks –, easy time, round pen, hand-walking – then all of a sudden, he’s turning inside out in his stall and we have to take him back into training," O'Dwyer said. "He’s a very special horse to me and to the owners, and it’s a very emotional win.”

Alvarado, who guided Stolen Holiday to victory in the Rampart in the previous race on Gulfstream’s New Year’s Eve card, moved to within five wins of the 2000-win milestone aboard Sibelius, who paid $11 on a $2 win bet.

Uncle Ernie set the pace along the backstretch and on the far turn while setting fractions of 22.09 and 44.07 seconds for the first half-mile, monitored closely by Sibelius. Turning into the stretch, the Jeremiah O’Dwyer-trained son of Not This Time took over the lead and was never threatened thereafter.

Dean Delivers closed for second, two lengths ahead of Steal Sunshine.