BY GULFSTREAM PARK PRESS OFFICE (Edited)
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Robert Cotran’s Florida-bred Rezasrolex, his nine-race win streak over the course of two seasons ended by an agonizing neck last time out, returns home to resume what the connections feel could be his best year yet in Saturday’s $125,000 Silks Run at Gulfstream Park. The five-furlong Silks Run for 4-year-olds and older on the grass has a field of seven.
Rezasrolex and fellow Florida-breds Souper Quest and Classic of Course will run for $25,000 included in the purse from the Florida-bred Incentive Fund.
Following a 2025 campaign where he was perfect in five starts, Rezasrolex has run twice this year going five furlongs on the grass, both at Tampa Bay Downs. He won a second condition, $32,000 optional claiming by a length-and-a-half on January 11 then was beaten by winner My Boy Prince when second in the $100,000 Turf Dash on Feb. 14. Despite the loss, Rezasrolex registered a Beyer Speed Figure of 98, a career-best on any surface, finishing a head in front of stablemate And Uwish in third.
“He got beat a tough neck the other day, I’ll tell you that. He kept trying and the truth is, he took the worst of it,” trainer Joe Orseno said. “The one speed horse was in front of him and [jockey Edgard Zayas] didn’t want to go to the inside fearing that that horse would just angle down on us, so he went around him. Actually, the horse that was in front stopped my other horse from coming. And UWish maybe would have won the whole race if the horse didn’t stop in his face. Both my horses showed up and ran well, but My Boy Prince just got to sit on the rail and beat us a neck. That was a tough one.”
Rezasrolex has won 13 of 18 lifetime starts, primarily in starter company, with 11 of those wins coming after Orseno claimed him at Gulfstream for $16,000 out of a victory on December 7, 2023. It was his first race at Gulfstream following two starts at Belterra Park, where he graduated going one mile on the grass.
“I happened to see this horse run at Belterra and I thought, ‘Wow, this is a Bucchero that went a mile on the turf’ and that’s something,” Orseno said of the decision to claim Rezasrolex. “Because [Bucchero progeny are] sometimes better off sprinting. But they do just about anything.
“It just stayed in the back of my head,” he added. “When he came down to Gulfstream, he had run against a horse that we had, Tapit Three Times, and he beat him. The owner was like, ‘Well, I’m tired of this horse beating us, so we should take him.’ Then I said that this is the horse I saw run at Belterra and I liked him and he’s by Bucchero, so we should definitely take him.”
Rezasrolex lost his first two races for the new connections, won the next two before losing again. Starting in June of 2024, he went on a run that covered a span of 570 days winning on turf and synthetic, sprinting five and five-and-a-half furlongs.
“He was eligible for that starter condition, from the [$25,000] to the [$35,000] to the [$50,000]. He won and every starter raised him in price,” Orseno said. “His numbers were starting to get better and the more confidence he got. The horse has had some minor little issues here and there and I’ve always stopped on him and gave him time. He’s a very happy horse right now.”
Though he has primarily won on the front end, Rezasrolex has also had success coming from just off the pace as he did in his season debut.
“He’s been amazing,” Orseno said. “It looks like he’s going to be a stronger 5-year-old. The stallion didn’t really get good until he was [5-years-old], so this is kind of what we’re hoping. I kind of ran him sparingly last year, five starts, just in preparation to try and have a good campaign this year.”
Rezasrolex is out of Sister Charlie, by Indian Charlie and was bred in Florida by Scott Hebertson.
He has post one and Zayas, who has ridden him in 10 of his last 11 races, has the return call.
Among the competition for Rezasrolex will be his stablemate and defending champion Eamonn, also owned by Cotran. It will be the 48th career start for the 8-year-old Eamonn, who hasn’t won since last year’s Silks Run with thirds in the Shakertown (G2) at Keeneland and $102,000 Wolf Hill at Monmouth Park last spring and summer.
Six of Eamonn’s eight career wins have come on the Gulfstream turf. He makes the quick turnaround and cuts back off a fifth-place finish after getting away slowly and closing late in a upper tier, $100,000 optional claiming going a mile on the grass on Feb. 22 at Tampa.
“He didn’t really get a chance to run. He was too far back, kind of a very lackadaisical race,” Orseno said. “He was plodding along and then picked it up a little bit at the end when he got clear. I just thought, let’s run him right back in here and see which direction he wants to take us.
Edwin Gonzalez is named to ride Eamonn from outermost post seven.
Also returning from last year’s Silks Run is Live Oak Plantation homebred Souper Quest, who finished fourth by two lengths and is seeking his first stakes victory after placing four previous times. The 6-year-old exits a front-running head victory in a high level, $62,500 optional claiming at the course and distance on Feb. 7.
Dylan Davis will ride from post two.
Amy Dunne and Patrick Biancone’s Classic of Course adds blinkers and shortens up after rallying to be fourth in the mile-and-a-sixteenth Sunshine Turf on Jan. 17 against fellow Florida-breds. Multiple stakes-placed on dirt, where he won Gulfstream’s Awesome Banner overnight handicap in November, his lone turf win in four tries came in the seven-and-a-half-furlong Cutler Bay last March on the Curlin Florida Derby (G1) undercard.
Classic of Course is by Awesome of Course out of Alma Mater, by Honor Code and was bred in Florida by Dunne and her husband Ciaran G. Dunne.
He will depart from post five with jockey Romero Maragh.
Completing the field is Litigation with Mario Gutierrez in the irons, David Egan rides Coppola and Sousa Summer with Jorge Ruiz up.
Return to the March 4 issue of Wire to Wire
