BY GULFSTREAM PARK PRESS OFFICE (Edited)
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Arindel’s multiple stakes-winning homebred Tank and stakes-placed stablemate Scarecrow will meet for the second straight race chasing their first win of the year in Saturday’s $100,000 FHBPA Turf at Gulfstream Park.
The mile-and-one-sixteenth Turf and one-mile Filly & Mare Turf, both going two turns for 4-year-olds and older, are among six $100,000 stakes for Florida-breds on an 11-race program that kicks off at 12:50 p.m. ET.
A 4-year-old son of Ocala Stud’s Adios Charlie trained by Carlos David, Tank cuts back following Gulfstream’s mile-and-three-eighths Mac Diarmida (G2) Feb. 28 and $100,000 AAA Feed and Tack Turf Classic going a mile-and-an-eighth last out against state-breds on March 29 at Tampa Bay Downs. In the Turf Classic, he was third by a half-length as the favorite after leading throughout.
“He just missed up there at a mile-and-an-eighth, but at a mile-and-a-sixteenth here I think he should be pretty tough,” Arindel’s racing manager Brian Cohen said. “We’re not sure exactly what distance he prefers. I always kind of thought he wanted to go a bit longer with a comfortable pace, but he had that at Tampa and he just missed. Maybe it is the mile, mile-and-a-sixteenth that he’ll prefer.”
Tank has been third or better in 10 of 17 starts with four wins, stringing together three straight last spring when he won the
$110,000 Equistaff Sophomore Turf at Tampa against state-breds and Gulfstream’s one-mile English Channel and a mile-and-a-sixteenth Not Surprising in open company. He then ran three times at Saratoga, beaten length-and-a-half when fourth in the mile-and-a-half Belmont Derby (G1), before returning to South Florida.
The winner of the Belmont Derby, Test Score, won the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf (G1) on Jan. 24 at Gulfstream in his lone start this year, and runner-up World Beater came back to win the Saratoga Derby Invitational (G1). Third-place finisher Luther was subsequently third in the Hall of Fame (G2), a race where Tank ran sixth.
“Last year [Tank] went on a little heater there where he won three in a row and then we sent him up to Saratoga for the Grade 1 and he wound up just a length [and a quarter] behind Test Score. He was right there,” Cohen said. “It was a photo for second and in the photo he ended up fourth and the horses that were second and third are graded-stakes horses.”
Jockey Samy Camacho, who won nine races in four days at the Royal Palm Meet last weekend, rides from post five in a field of eight. They are rated as second choice on the morning line at 3-1.
Scarecrow, also a 4-year-old, has raced just eight times with two wins and two thirds. Beaten a length-and-a-quarter when third in the $95,000 Armed Forces at a mile on the Gulfstream turf in November 2024, his second career start, he exits an even sixth in the Turf Classic at Tampa.
“I think ultimately Scarecrow is going to want to go a little bit longer,” Cohen said. “I don’t think necessarily this track at Gulfstream does him any favors because he wants to come from so far off of it [and] he doesn’t really have speed. But he’ll be there.”
Scarecrow was a head winner of an open allowance at a mile-and-a-sixteenth last February in his lone start on Gulfstream’s all-weather course that had the connections thinking big.
“We thought we were going to go to the Jeff Ruby [G3] and have a good shot at maybe potentially getting him into the [Kentucky] Derby [G1] last year but he got hurt aiming for that,” Cohen said. “He had a surgery and he had a long time off so we’ve just kind of let him race himself back. He spent a lot of time on the shelf, but we do think a lot of him.”
Edgard Zayas, a South Florida mainstay who moved his tack to New York following the 2025-2026 Championship Meet, is named to ride Scarecrow (10-1) from outermost post eight.
Private Thoughts, co-owned by David Romanik and trainer Ron Spatz, is the 2-1 program favorite from post two having run in five straight overnight handicaps dating back to early October. With wins in the December 27 St. Augustine on synthetic and in the October 4 Jet Propulsion going a mile-and-a-sixteenth on turf, where the 5-year-old gelding has a record of three wins with two seconds and third from eight starts.
Jockey Leonel Reyes, one win shy of 1,000 in North America, has the mount.
Classic Mo Town, winner of last summer’s Eclipse (G2) on the Woodbine synthetic; stakes-placed Adios Cole and Brawn; Junction Road, riding a two-race win streak for trainer Rohan Crichton; and Tapit Kissit Winit complete the field.
Return to the April 22 issue of Wire to Wire
