Nakatomi scoring the Vanderbilt at Saratoga. (Coglianese/NYRA photo)
Multiple Grade 3 Winner Super Chow Among Six Rivals Saturday
David Joseph/Gulfstream Park
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Qatar Racing and Mrs. Fitriani Hay’s Nakatomi, well-traveled Grade 1 winner of more than $1.2 million in purse earnings, will launch his 6-year-old campaign against six rivals including fellow multiple stakes winners Super Chow and Gordian Knot in Saturday’s $140,000 Gulfstream Park Sprint.
The 47th running of the six-furlong Gulfstream Park Sprint for 4-year-olds and up is the headliner on a 12-race program that gets under way at 12:50 p.m.
Nakatomi, trained by Wesley Ward, will make Gulfstream his 11th racetrack in six states and three countries including an eighth-place finish in the 2021 Norfolk (G2) at Royal Ascot in England and the Golden Shaheen (G1) last spring in Dubai, where he ran third.
Ward’s plan is to use the Gulfstream Park Sprint as a springboard to a return in the Golden Shaheen April 5 at Meydan Racecourse, which this year will serve as a ‘Win and You’re In’ qualifier for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) at Del Mar.
“He’s doing great,” Ward said. “We wanted to get a prep into him for Dubai, which is where we’re aiming again this year. He’s been invited to the Golden Shaheen, so we’re going to go. His owner, Sheikh Fahad, is right there and Jim Hay and his wife Fitri winter every year in Dubai, so they’re looking forward to having him run back.”
Nakatomi is targeting a third trip to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, having run third at odds of 26-1 behind two-time champion Elite Power in 2023 and sixth to Eclipse Award winner Straight No Chaser Nov. 2, his most recent race.
Third as the favorite to 2023 Golden Shaheen winner Sibelius last winter in his season debut, Nakatomi returned from Dubai to register a 1 ½-length triumph in the Alfred G. Vanderbilt (G1) at Saratoga before running second in the Oct. 4 Phoenix (G2) at Keeneland in his Breeders’ Cup prep.
“He ran a big race off of Dubai in the Grade 1 at Saratoga,” Ward said. “He came back and ran a little bit of a disappointing effort in the Phoenix. That particular day the track was just lightning fast, and everything was just winning on the lead, and his style wasn’t conducive to the way the track played.
“So, we gave him a little bit of an excuse for that, and he still ran a good second,” he added. “We got out to California, thinking he’d run like he did the year before, and he just didn’t fire. He came out of there with no excuses at all, so we brought him home and freshened him up, and he’s back.”
Nakatomi has breezed five times since mid-January at Payson Park in Indiantown, Fla., most recently going four furlongs in an easy 51.60 seconds Monday under jockey Junior Alvarado, who will ride for the first time from Post 4. Ward also enlisted Hall of Fame rider John Velazquez to help with the preparations.
“We had Johnny V. work him last week [and] he loved the way he worked,” Ward said. “Junior breezed him [Monday] morning to get used to him a little bit, and away we go.”
Purchased for $205,000 as a 2-year-old in training in 2023, Nakatomi has been third or better in 15 of 20 career starts, six of them wins, with $1,262,026 in purses earned. Before coming to South Florida, Nakatomi got his winter break at Hunter Valley Farm in Kentucky co-owned by Fergus Galvin.
“He’s got a 10-year-old daughter and she rides him. We threw her on him bareback before the Breeders’ Cup at the barn here at Keeneland, so that was kind of nice,” Ward said. “When he retires, he’s going right to her. He’ll have a good home. She loves him.”
Lea Farms’ Super Chow opens his 5-year-old season looking to regain the form that saw him win the Toboggan (G3), Tom Fool (G3) and Maryland Sprint (G3) and run third in the Carter (G2) last winter and spring. The nine-time career winner has a 3-2-1 record from seven tries at Gulfstream, where he ran sixth after setting the pace last out in the seven-furlong Mr. Prospector (G3) Dec. 28.
Joseph Imbesi’s 5-year-old Gordian Knot is a five-time stakes winner that ran third in the six-furlong Gallant Bob (G2) in 2023 and will be racing first time for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher, a four-time winner of the Gulfstream Park Sprint, most recently with Munnings in 2010.
“We’ve had him a couple months now,” Pletcher said. “He’s been training steadily for us all winter. He’s a very cool horse to be around, straightforward, professional.”
Gordian Knot has not run since finishing ninth in the 6 ½-furlong Parx Sprint Sept. 21. He is 7-for-15 overall, having raced at distances from five-eighths to 1 1/16 miles, and owns two wins and three thirds in five career tries going six furlongs.
“He’s just a very consistent horse,” Pletcher said. “He comes out and trains well every day and his form is good. We feel like this is a good starting point for him. Mr. Imbesi feels like six furlongs is probably his best distance and so we’ll try to focus on as many of those races as we can.”
Championship Meet leading trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. entered the quartet of Swirvin, Okiro, Concrete Glory and Comedy Town. Eighth in last year’s Gulfstream Park Sprint, Bassett Stables’ Swirvin won the 2023 Jersey Shore at Monmouth Park and ran second in his comeback, a 6 ½-furlong optional claiming allowance Jan. 26 at Gulfstream.
Yutaka Enterprises Corp.’s Okiro is winless in six starts since a victory in the six-furlong Animal Kingdom last March on Turfway Park’s all-weather surface. Big Frank Stable’s Concrete Glory is a 15-time career winner, 10 coming at Gulfstream, including a popular last-out win going seven furlongs Jan. 12.
Co-owned by Josep and Ten Twenty Racing, Comedy Town was beaten a neck when secondo against fellow Florida-breds in the six-furlong Sunshine Sprint Jan. 18 at Gulfstream, his first start in 3 ½ months. He has won three of six starts since being claimed for $25,000 by Joseph including back-to-back wins in the Smile Sprint and Benny the Bull last summer.
