Photo Credit: A. Coglianese
Gulfstream Park News
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Starlight Racing’s Sombeyay chased down stablemate and pacesetter Gidu down the stretch to win the $150,000 Canadian Turf (G3) Saturday at Gulfstream Park.
A 4-year-old son of Into Mischief who finished second last summer at Saratoga in the Hall of Fame (G2), Sombeyay covered a firm mile turf course in 1:32.44. It was Sombeyay’s third win in 11 starts to go along with four second-place finishes.
While Gidu was setting brisk fractions of :21.93 and :44.26, jockey Flavien Prat raced Sombeyay third down the backstretch before making his move on the leader around the final turn and driving by the tiring Gidu an eighth of a mile from the finish. Sombeyay had plenty left to hold off runner-up English Bee and third-place finisher Louder Than Bombs.
The Canadian Turf was one of 10 stakes – nine graded – on Fountain of Youth Day.
Trainer Todd Pletcher (Sombeyay): “The last one was a good comeback race (optional claiming on Jan. 26) that we felt like it was good enough to come back in a stake and we’ve been targeting this race since then. He ran pretty well on the dirt (earlier in his career). But he’s always been a horse that trained just okay on the dirt. He actually ran a little better than he was training. But the Into Mischief’s seem so versatile, we worked him one day on the turf, and we were like, wow, he moved forward. And it seems like he’s improved a bit as a 4-year-old.”
Jockey Flavien Prat (Sombeyay): “I had a good trip. He broke well and put me in the race. From there, he got the job done. Once I got to the lead he kind of looked around a little bit, but I had more horse if I needed it.”
