BY BROCK SHERIDAN
Seminole Chief tries for his third straight victory Saturday when the Florida-bred gelding lines up for the CAN$200,000 bet365 King Edward Stakes (Grade 2), a one-mile test on the inner turf at Woodbine. Seminole Chief has drawn post four among six 3-year-olds and older entered.
A Grade 2 victory outside Florida also provides a $5,000 Export Incentive check for breeders Brad and Misty Grady of Grandview, Texas paid by the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association.
Seminole Chief is undefeated in two races since transferring to the barn of Joe Sharp, who has been hot with horses at Woodbine this year winning four and finishing second three times with 10 runners.
The 5-year-old gelded son of the recently passed Girvin won a $75,000 claiming in his first race for Sharp, going a mile on the turf at Churchill on June 17. Next, he scored in the $102,000 Jonathan B. Schuster Memorial Stakes at Horseshoe Indianapolis on July 11, winning that mile-and-a-sixteenth test on the grass by three-quarters of length.
Seminole Chief produced his first stakes victory as a 2-year-old at Gulfstream Park, winning the $300,000 In Reality division of the FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes in 2023 and last year took the Listed Appleton Stakes going a mile on the Gulfstream grass in March. For his career, he has seven wins, a second and two thirds in 17 starts with earnings of $551,803.
He was an $80,000 graduate at the 2023 Ocala Breeders Sales June Sale of 2-year-olds in training and horses of racing age. HND Bloodstock selected him out of the Bobby Dodd consignment.
Out of Secret Song, by Dunkirk, Seminole Chief is now owned by Bradley R. Grady and David Grund and will be ridden by Ruben Hernandez. They are 6-1 on the morning line.
Gas Me Up returns to the barn of trainer Kevin Attard after racing out of the Peter Eurton barn for three races at Santa Anita where he began his racing career in 2022. In his first race for Eurton this time, he won the six-and-a-half-furlong Joe Hernandez Stakes (G2) coming off the Santa Anita downhill turf on December 29 the was second to Florida-bred El Potente in the one-mile Thunder Road (G3) on the grass on February 7. Most recently, Gas Me Up was fourth in the one-mile Frank Kilroe (G2) on the Santa Anita turf on March 7.
A gelded son of Hard Spun who races for Exline-Border Racing, Michael Jawl, Aaron Kennedy and Ron Sqiesler, the 6-year-old Gas Me Up has five career wins with two seconds and a third from 13 starts and revenues of $522,262.
He will be ridden by Fraser Aebly from post three and they are the 8-5 morning line favorites.
Completing the field are Irish Aces with Pietro Moran named to ride, G T Five Hundred and jockey Jose Campos, Emma-Jayne Wilson has the call on Wyoming Bill and Piper’s Factor will have John Velazquez up.
Return to Wire to Wire
