BY BROCK SHERIDAN
Florida-bred Private Thoughts and jockey Tyler Gaffalione came from mid-pack to challenge pace-setting leader Prevent and longshot Brawn around the far turn then spurted clear in the stretch to win the $100,000 St. Augustine overnight handicap at Gulfstream Park Saturday. Owned by trainer Ronald B. Spatz with David S. Romanik, Private Thoughts was the best of eight 3-year-olds and older who went a mile-and-one-sixteenth on the all-weather course.
Florida-bred Prevent, who was trying to duplicate his half-length victory ahead of runner-up Private Thoughts in the $100,000 Sabal Palm overnight handicap at Gulfstream on Nov. 29, was sent immediately to the front from the outside post by jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. They raced with a clear lead through quarter-mile splits of :22.97 and :46.58 with Florida-bred Brawn giving chase in second. The three Florida-breds hooked up around the second turn before Private Thoughts shook off his rivals while three-wide turning for home. Gaffalione hand-rode Private Thoughts through the stretch to win by two-and-a-quarter lengths in 1:40.50. Bail Us Out rallied from seventh to finish second, two-and-three-quarters lengths ahead of Brawn in third. No More Options, Megalodon, Prevent, Jayhawk and Tour the City completed the order of finish.
“Prevent got away with [a slower pace] last time,” Spatz said. “Today he had company. It made all the difference. The very first part of the race he was a little farther back than normal, but I saw the hook up on the front and I was good with it.
“So consistent. Such a lovely horse.”
Private Thoughts paid $6 to win as the 2-1 favorite. Private Thoughts was assigned 120 pounds, one pound less than co-highweighted Prevent and Bail Us Out.
Bred in Florida by Helen and Joseph Barbazon, Private Thoughts is by Pleasant Acres Stallions resident Neolithic out of Love Itself (GB), by Oasis Dream (GB). The 4-year-old gelding has now won eight of 18 career starts with four seconds and two thirds while earning $359,474.
Spatz bought Private Thoughts for $11,000 out of the Scenic Sales consignment at the 2023 Ocala Breeders’ Sales March Sale of 2-year-olds in training.
Return to the December 27 issue of Wire to Wire
