Promising 2YO Colt Strike Set to Make Race Debut Sunday
BY GULFSTREAM PARK PRESS OFFICE (Edited)
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Arindel’s 4-year-old homebred filly Mythical, a Grade 3 winner of five stakes from eight starts, continues to train forwardly at Gulfstream Park as the connections plot out a summer campaign likely to include a return trip to Saratoga.
Trained by Jorge Delgado, Mythical has breezed twice at Gulfstream since registering a popular two-length victory in the $122,500 Any Limit at six furlongs on March 14 during the 2025-2026 Championship Meet. It was the fourth win in five tries over her home track, the only loss coming in the Grade 3 Forward Gal on January 31 in her season debut.
Mythical owns wins from four-and-a-half furlongs to a mile-and-a-sixteenth but Arindel racing manager Brian Cohen feels the daughter of St Patrick’s Day is better suited to shorter distances. She ran three times last summer at Saratoga, winning the five-and-a-half-furlong Tremont (Listed) against boys and six-and-a-half-furlong Adirondack (G3) and running fifth in the seven-furlong Spinaway (G1).
“She won a couple races at Saratoga and there’s a nice series of sprint races there that suit her. We’ll see how she progresses,” Cohen said. “If she wins going six [furlongs] and then six-and-a-half, we might try seven again maybe thinking of the Breeders’ Cup. But she’s very, very tough at six furlongs. We’d like to keep her going as long as possible and keep giving her races where she should be best. That’s kind of our plans now.”
Mythical was part of Delgado’s Monmouth Park string from May to October last year before returning to South Florida, a scenario Cohen expects to follow again this year.
“Jorge ships up to Monmouth and that’s where she trained last summer and went over [to Saratoga] for races. It’s not too far, just like when we came back down here,” Cohen said.
“She started here and ran well here and she went up there. [We’re] just kind of keeping it the same with her and keeping her happy.”
Just as it did last spring with Mythical, Arindel won Gulfstream’s first race of the year for juveniles Thursday with its homebred filly Boots. On Sunday, it will be represented by both Strike and Medieval in the first open 2-year-old race of the season.
Strike is a son of Grade 1-winning freshman sire Roadster bred in Florida by Susan Kahn out of the Wildcat Heir mare Hardcore Cat whose maternal grandmother is Hardcore Candy, the dam of Grade 1-winning millionaire mare Dorth Vader. He will break from the rail against six rivals in the four-and-a-half-furlong maiden special weight with Samy Camacho up for trainer Jorge Delgado, who also teamed up on Boots.
“I’m really excited about him. I think he’s pretty nice,” Cohen said. “He’s bigger, so I don’t know that he’s necessarily a four-and-a-half-furlong horse. But he’s showed enough speed in the morning that he’s got a pretty good shot from the inside there.”
Strike fetched $57,000 at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Winter Mixed Sale last January. He worked four times at Arindel’s Ocala farm before having his last three breezes over Gulfstream’s main track including a bullet three furlongs in :35.06 on April 10.
“That sale in particular I’ve done well at. That’s definitely the most I’ve gone to at that sale,” Cohen said. “With Roadster being by Quality Road, it felt like he kind of looked that typical Quality Road—tall, long. He was just a handsome colt and he’s growing into himself really well. He’s out of Dorth Vader’s sister so he’s got a good Florida family. There was a lot there to like.”
Medieval, trained by Carlos David, is a New York-bred grandson of 2015 Triple Crown champion American Pharoah that is a half-brother to six-figure earner Never Satisfied and Julita, who won four of 15 starts.
Before Boots’ victory, Arindel ran second in a pair of juvenile races at Keeneland with the filly Smoke on April 8 and Crossfire on April 9. Both horses are based in Kentucky with trainer Brendan Walsh.
“Just getting started with the babies, especially the first races like that, if you win a race you’re not running again for a long time so second is nice this time of year,” Cohen said. “They’re generally good purse races and they learn something and they can run again before having to wait for some more winners.”
Return to the April 18 issue of Wire to Wire
