South Bend reroutes to Gulfstream's English Channel Stakes

Were it not for a deep rally by Grade 1-winning Decorated Invader, South Bend, second by 1 1/4 lengths in the Cutler Bay Stakes, figured to prevail back on March 28 at Gulfstream Park.

Connections will give the 3-year-old son of Algorithms another try going two turns on the turf in the May 2 English Channel Stakes, a $75,000 event again going 1 1/16 miles at Gulfstream.

South Bend scratched from Saturday’s $75,000 Unbridled Stakes, a two-turn event on the dirt, while his Sagamore Farm-owned, Stanley Hough-trained stablemate Necker Island remained in that field.

“He ran into a really good horse last time, obviously,” Hunter Rankin, president of Sagamore Farm, said of South Bend earlier this week. “… He started running well when we put him on the grass, but I don’t necessarily know where he’s best.

“We’re going to keep him on the grass this time because he’s run well on it the last couple times, but we still would like to put him back on the dirt going two turns again and see if he can do that. He trains well on dirt.”

A $70,000 purchase as a 2-year-old in training, South Bend opened his career 3-for-3, including a victory in Churchill Downs’ one-mile Street Sense Stakes last October. The colt suffered his first defeat when sixth in the slop in the Kentucky Jockey Club (G2) and then ran fourth in his season debut, the Jan. 4 Mucho Macho Man at Gulfstream.

“He had the weird race at Churchill where it was really sloppy and nasty that day,” Rankin said of the Kentucky Jockey Club. “Then we ran him in the Mucho Macho Man, and I can’t really explain — he never really picked it up that day and just passed tired horses.”

The surface switch followed. It resulted in board-hitting performances in the Dania Beach and Palm Beach (G3) before a close call in the Cutler Bay, both Gulfstream stakes as well.

Next weekend’s English Channel is one of three added-money races on the card joined by the Honey Ryder, a companion event for 3-year-old turf fillies, and the Big Drama, a seven-furlong sprint for Florida-breds on dirt.

Decorated Invader is nominated to the English Channel but hasn’t worked since his last start. He's expected to await bigger spots once racing resumes in New York.

Others prominent on the nominations list are past graded winners such as Field Pass and Island Commish, while Our Country was graded stakes-placed last season at age 2.