Travelin Man to Try Turf for First Time Saturday
Travelin Man has lived up to his name, running at six racetracks in five states up and down the East Coast over his career. Now 6, the bay son of Trippi will try grass for the first time when he returns to the races on Saturday.
Bred and owned by E. Paul Robsham Stables, Travelin Man will break from post eight in a field of 11 older horses entered for the $75,000 Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint.
In its fifth year, the GP Turf Sprint was won last year by Varsity in a stakes-record 54.17 seconds for five furlongs.
Travelin Man has five wins, two seconds and a third from 17 lifetime starts, having banked $312,484 in purse earnings. Most recently, he was fifth, beaten 6 ¼ lengths in the $100,000 Mr. Prospector (G3) at Gulfstream on Dec. 28.
Though he has yet to run on the turf, Travelin Man has done well at Gulfstream with five wins, a second and a third from nine starts on the main track. He captured the seven-furlong Swale (G2) in 2011 and back-to-back Sir Shackleton Stakes in 2012 and 2013.
Travelin Man breezed on the grass at the Palm Meadows training center on Jan. 13, going a half-mile in 51.60 seconds, eighth-fastest of 48 horses.
“I thought he worked really well on the turf, and some of the Trippis handle the grass,” Pletcher said. “He’s an older horse and we’re trying to revive him a little bit. Maybe a switch of surfaces will do that.”
Pletcher said two of his recently turned 4-year-olds, Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Palace Malice and Princess of Sylmar, Eclipse Award finalist for top 3-year-old filly of 2013, are just gearing up for their 2014 campaigns.
Palace Malice breezed Sunday at Palm Meadows in 50.50 seconds for a half-mile, his third breeze following his sixth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1). Princess of Sylmar, who reeled off consecutive Grade 1 wins in the Kentucky Oaks, Coaching Club American Oaks, Alabama and Beldame, rejoined Pletcher’s string on Jan. 19. “We’ve still got another month or so of galloping before we get her on a breeze program,” Pletcher said of Princess of Sylmar. “Palace Malice, it’s still a little too early to pinpoint a race. That was his third work back and second half [mile], and he seems to be doing great. We’re still a little ways away.”
Boisterous, who was purchased by Gary Barber at last year’s Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale and turned over to Pletcher, will make the first start for his new connections in the Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap (G1) on Feb. 8.
Bred and raced previously by Phipps Stable and trainer Shug McGaughey, the 7-year-old Boisterous has 11 wins and $1.3 million in purse earnings from 28 lifetime starts, seven of them in graded stakes, including the Man o’ War (G1) at Belmont Park last July.