Horacio Karamanos. (TMJC Photo)
• Sweezey on Track for Best Championship Meet Yet
• Top Three Swale Runners Nominated to $115,000 Hutcheson
Gulfstream Park News & Notes
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – By this time next month, journeyman Horacio Karamanos expects to be back riding on the Mid-Atlantic circuit he has called home for more than two decades. Before he goes, the Argentina native will be happy to finish out what has been an enjoyable first full winter at Gulfstream Park’s Championship Meet.
Entering Friday’s program, where he is named in four of nine races, Karamanos had finished third or better on 17 of 65 mounts (39 percent) with four wins, riding for 18 different trainers. Fifteen of those rides came for Maryland-based Mike Trombetta, a regular client.
“I’ve never been here full-time,” Karamanos said. “There’s a lot of good riders here. The big trainers come with their riders, so I pick up some mounts. Mike Trombetta has supported me a lot, so I really appreciate it. I ride for him all year round at Maryland and Colonial [Downs]. I’m working for him, and he helps me, so it’s good. I’m happy.”
Karamanos typically rides the winter at Laurel Park but opted to spend this winter in Hallandale Beach, where he has owned a condo since 2007. He won nearly 1,500 races in Argentina before coming to the U.S. full-time, notching his first domestic winner on Hallow Connection July 18, 2000, at Calder Race Course.
“I always stayed in Maryland all winter, but the winter was going to be slow this year. It looked like a lot of short fields. My family came, too, so I decided to do the winter here. I’m planning to go back to Maryland in April,” Karamanos said. “I stay here and enjoy this beautiful weather. I won some races and ran well in some other races. I didn’t have that much business, but I felt like I did pretty good for less business than what I usually have.”
Karamanos made his stateside debut Jan. 24, 1997, at Gulfstream, returning to the U.S. to stay three years later. His first Gulfstream win came in a Jan. 12, 2001, starter handicap aboard Polly’s Comet.
Since 2002 Karamanos has been based in Maryland, where he owns multiple meet titles at Laurel and Pimlico Race Course as well as Colonial Downs in Virginia, where he is the track’s all-time winningest rider.
Overall, Karamanos owns 2,682 wins, 11 of them in graded-stakes including Laurel’s Barbara Fritchie (G2) three times and Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G3) twice, and more than $78 million in purse earnings. He reached single-season career highs of 237 wins in 2002 and $5.054 million in purses earned in 2022.
Karamanos’ best horse was multiple graded-stakes winning millionaire mare Page McKenney.
“Over the years I would come on days off and go back to Maryland, but we decided to stay all winter this year,” he said. “It’s the first time I spend the whole winter. I’ve enjoyed it very much. It’s very competitive but I’m so happy to be here. I ride one or two a day and seven, eight, 10 a week so that’s pretty good. I’m staying fit and preparing for Maryland and Colonial Downs.”
Sweezey on Track for Best Championship Meet Yet
In relatively quiet fashion, trainer Kent Sweezey is on target to have his best Championship Meet showing since first coming to spend the winter in South Florida full-time four years ago. And people are noticing.
Sweezey recorded wins with 15 of his first 57 starters, a 26 percent success rate that ranked highest among the meet’s top 10 trainers. Overall, his horses had been third or better 32 times (56 percent) and banked more than $370,000 in purse earnings.
“If you win a race at Gulfstream during the Championship Meet, my phone rings a hundred times,” Sweezey said. “Everybody’s texting ‘congrats’ or, if there’s a Pick 6 sequence, they’re asking if I like my horse. It’s a good thing when the phone rings. You win some races and do it at the Championship Meet and the phone rings.”
Thirteen of Sweezey’s wins had come in claiming races, five of them maidens. He has won twice each with 4-year-old gelding Air Force Cruising, 3-year-old filly Kiss Cam and 5-year-old mare Chaina. Kiss Cam won a starter optional claimer Feb. 14, and 4-year-old filly Done Enough captured a seven-furlong optional claiming allowance Feb. 16.
“It’s been great. I’ve got some awesome owners that are super realistic, and they want to win races. These guys love the game, and they want to keep going. When you win some races like that, all of a sudden you get some more money in your bookkeeper account and then you want to pull the trigger and claim a couple more. That’s how it’s gone on for us for, say, the last three or four months,” Sweezey said. “You put horses in realistic spots. Sometimes they take them, and sometimes they don’t. I’m glad the money’s good at Gulfstream. That keeps us coming back.”
Sweezey’s best Championship Meet came in 2020-2021 when he won with 21 of 121 starters (17 percent) and earned nearly $527,000 in purses. He credits the entire barn for this winter’s success, starting with his assistant trainer and girlfriend, Julie Stormfelt.
“She pretty much takes care of the barn. She’s the one getting there at 4 a.m.,” Sweezey said. “We’ve had a good little run and everyone’s working really hard. That’s what it boils down to. It’s definitely not just me. I’m the one putting them in spots and finding the right jockeys for them, but there’s a whole lot more to it. They deserve most of the credit. We’ve got a good team and good owners, that’s the main thing.”
Sweezey said Done Enough will scratch from Saturday’s $165,000 Hurricane Bertie (G3) and run instead in a 6 ½-furlong optional claiming allowance for fillies and mares 4 and up March 12 at Gulfstream. Done Enough went more than 11 months between starts before running third in back-to-back optional claiming allowances Dec. 21 and Jan. 18, then taking that condition in front-running fashion last time out.
“She likes Gulfstream,” Sweezey said. “When a filly gets into a groove, that’s a good thing. It’s hard to get a filly into a groove but once they [are], you can ride the wave a little bit and I think we’re on that wave right now. I’d like to think she can win the allowance on Wednesday and then we can take a look at a little stake someplace.”
Top Three Swale Runners Nominated to $115,000 Hutcheson
The top three finishers from the Feb. 1 Swale, Mucho Macho Man winner Guns Loaded, and eye-catching debut winner Sorcerer’s Silver are among 11 3-year-olds nominated to the $115,000 Hutcheson sprinting six furlongs Saturday, March 15 at Gulfstream Park.
Donegal Racing’s Gate to Wire, runner-up in the 2024 Futurity on the Aqueduct turf last fall in his second start, won the seven-furlong Swale by five lengths over Macho Music and Gunmetal in his dirt debut for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher. The Munnings colt exits a troubled fifth in the 1 1/16-mile Fountain of Youth (G2) March 1; Macho Music and Gunmetal have yet to run back.
Morplay Racing, Joey Platts and Lady Sheila Stable’s Guns Loaded was a front-running neck winner of the one-mile Mucho Macho Man Jan. 4 before tiring after setting the pace in the 1 1/16-mile Holy Bull (G3) Feb. 1. The same day, West Point Thoroughbreds and Domeyko Taylor’s Sorcerer’s Silver was an 8 ¼-length maiden special weight winner over fellow Florida-breds.
Last-out winners Multiverse, Rolando, Rookie Card and filly Lynn’s Milky Way are also nominated.
Sharing the March 15 card is the $115,000 Captiva Island, a five-furlong turf dash for fillies and mares 4 and up that attracted 16 nominations led by 2023 Herecomesthebride (G3) winner Danse Macabre, unraced since August; fellow multiple stakes winners Dancing Duchess and Twirling Queen; Feb. 8 Ladies’ Turf Sprint winner Epona’s Hope; Feb. 22 Lightning City winner Great Venezuela; Dec. 28 Abundantia winner Just a Care; Grade 2-placed Pandora’s Gift; and French Group 3 winner Tiger Belle.
Lynn’s Milky Way is also among 10 3-year-old fillies nominated to the $115,000 Any Limit going six furlongs on the main track Sunday, March 16. Four other horses are coming off wins including 10 ¾-length debut winner My Perfect Lady. R Morning Brew, winner of the 2024 FSS Desert Vixen off since finishing fourth in the FSS My Dear Girl Nov. 30, and Win N Your In, who beat Desert Vixen in the Oct. 19 FSS Susan’s Girl, are also nominated.
