White Abarrio drew clear by 4 1/2 lengths under Tyler Gaffalione. (Coglianese Photo)
By Maribeth Kalinich
While the rest of the country was abuzz with 22 stakes races on Saturday there was another race of note on the Gulfstream Park 14-race card. Grade 1 winner White Abarrio won Race 7, a seven-furlong $73,000 Allowance Optional Claiming race, for trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr.
This was White Abarrio’s second start of the year after a lackluster eighth place finish in the G1 Pegasus World Cup. The gray gelding finished 2022 with a third place in the G1 Cigar Mile.
The race consisted of a field of 10 older horses that included 2021 G3 Gotham Stakes winner Weyburn (ON), Collaborate, fifth in the 2021 G1 Florida Derby with Tyler Gaffalione up, winner of the 2020 Millions Sprint Preview Stakes Legal Deal and Legends Can’t Die, fourth in the 2022 Better Talk Now Stakes.
Klugman with Edgard Zayas aboard broke first and set the pace with an opening quarter of 22.35 with Legal Del (Esmisael Jaramillio) close on his heels, Klugman continued the quick pace with fractions of 44.80 and 1:09.70 before yielding in the stretch. Tyler Gaffalione aboard White Abarrio patiently settled into fourth just off the pace.
Weyburn rallied from seventh to second with Collaborate coming in from eighth to finish third by a neck just as Gaffalione signaled to his mount. White Abarrio drew clear for the 4 1/2 length victory in a final time of 1:22.05.
White Abarrio paid $4.40, 3.20 and 2.20. Weyburn paid $6.20 and 3.60 with Collaborate paying $3.20 for show.
White Abarrio began his career by winning his debut at Gulfstream Park Sept. 24, 2021, following up with a win in an AOC and a third place in the G2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes.
The son of Race Day went on to win the G3 Holy Bull and G1 Curlin Florida Derby earning him points to run in the Kentucky Derby.
May 7, 2022, was not to be White Abarrio’s day as he finished sixteenth in the Kentucky Derby.
However, he would follow that up with a second off one length in the G3 Ohio Derby at Thistledown just behind Tawny Port with Irad Ortiz, Jr. up.
White Abarrio, out of the Into Mischief mare Catching Diamonds, is owned by C2 Racing Stable LLC and La Milagrosa Stable, LLC and was bred in Kentucky by Spendthrift Farm.
The 4-year-old colt has five wins out of 12 starts with one place and two thirds earning $1,156,350.
It’s likely that Joseph was giving White Abarrio a little tuneup in an AOC for something bigger on the horizon at Gulfstream Park.
