Coppola (#5) runs down Yes I Am Free in $100,000 Silks Run. (Lauren King)
Breeders’ Cup Runner-Up Big Invasion Fourth in Comeback
David Joseph/Gulfstream Park
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Hammer Time Stable and SOK Racing’s Coppola, who became a stakes winner over the course in his previous start, made it two in a row by surging past two-time Grade 3 winner Yes I Am Free in deep stretch and going on to a half-length victory in Saturday’s $100,000 Silks Run at Gulfstream Park.
The five-furlong Silks Run for 4-year-olds and up on the grass was the first of back-to-back stakes on an 11-race program followed by the $125,000 Hurricane Bertie (G3) for fillies and mares 4 and older sprinting 6 ½ furlongs on the main track, won by Red Carpet Ready.
With Edgard Zayas up for trainer Dale Romans, 5-year-old Coppola ($16.20) completed the distance in 54.74 seconds over a course rated good for his second straight win and fourth in his last six starts. He won the five-furlong Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint by a similar margin Feb. 10 over Panther Island, who also returned in the Silks Run.
“We were in a little bit of trouble, but we were chasing a really good horse,” Romans said. “This was a tough race. You had two Breeders’ Cup horses in there. We were just hoping he got a crack, and he did.”
Both Storm the Court, 45-1 upset winner of the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1), and Big Invasion, the 3-5 favorite racing for the first time since being beaten a neck when second in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1) Nov. 4, broke a step slow and trailed the field in the early going. Coppola came out of the gate alertly but was outrun for the lead by Yes I Am Free, who set blazing fractions of 21:30 and 43.30 seconds while pressed by Kanthari.
Coppola settled in third along the rail and was still there after straightening for home Kanthari drifting out to the middle of the track chasing Yes I Am Free. After Coppola hesitated to go through a narrow opening along the rail, Zayas tipped outside Yes I Am Free with Kanthari to their right and came with a steady drive to run down the leader in the final sixteenth.
“He ran like that before,” Romans said. “He’s so fast leaving there; you don’t want to take him back all the time. But if there’s a lot of speed and he can sit off of them, that’s the best.”
Panther Island stablemate Yes I Am Free finished in a dead heat for second, while Big Invasion made a strong late run to get up for fourth ahead of Kanthari. Itsallcomingtogetha, Rockcrest and Storm the Court completed the order of finish.
Though his previous turf wins had all come over firm turf, Romans said he was not concerned about the course for Coppola, who also won in the slop as a 2-year-old and an off-the-turf allowance last fall in Kentucky.
“I didn’t think it would bother him. It seems like he runs on anything,” Romans said. “He ran well in Churchill on the dirt, and he ran well at Monmouth in the slop. I don’t think it matters to him. He’s just a good horse. He’ll run on anything.”
Coppola, a son of Into Mischief, was making his third start of Gulfstream’s 2022-2023 Championship Meet, also finishing fourth, 1 ¼ lengths behind Panther Island, in the five-furlong Janus Dec. 31. Zayas was aboard for the first time last out.
“At the beginning it got a little tough,” Zayas said. “He’s a little bit difficult horse to ride, but I got the hang of him. He’s been good for me. He had a good trip after that. He split horses and really kicked in nice.”
