BY GULFSTREAM PARK PRESS OFFICE (Edited)
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL—Amy Dunne and trainer Patrick Biancone’s Squire, who has shown talent on both dirt and turf in his first two starts of his career, will return to the main track Saturday for the $100,000 Dr. Fager at Gulfstream Park.
The Dr. Fager, the six-furlong first leg of the 2025 Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association Florida Sire Stakes series for 2-year-olds sired by accredited Florida stallions, will co-headline Saturday’s 11-race program with the $100,000 Desert Vixen for Florida Sire Stakes-eligible 2-year-old fillies.
Squire has been installed as the 8-5 morning-line favorite in a field of eight on the strength of two strong races. He was a rallying winner in his April 18 debut at four-and-a-half furlongs and a runner-up to Sandal’s Song on turf in the $100,000 Royal Palm Juvenile, a mile turf stakes May 10 that offered the winner a fees-paid berth in a stakes during the Royal Ascot meeting in Great Britain. Sandal’s Song went on to finish third in the Group 2 Norfolk won by Charles Darwin (Ire) at Royal Ascot on June 19.
“Squire is a very nice colt,” Biancone said. “He broke his maiden on dirt. The race was short for him, but he did it. Then he was a little bit too nervous when he ran in the stakes. He never settled. He was a pain in the butt to put in the gate. He went to the lead but didn’t finish. But at the end of the day, he ran a great race, because the winner nearly won the Norfolk at Ascot.”
Squire, who has been gelded since his over-anxious second-place finish in the Royal Palm Juvenile, prepared for the Dr. Fager with a sharp three-furlong breeze from the gate in 35.70 seconds, the fastest of 22 works recorded at the distance Saturday at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County.
“We decided to give him time when he didn’t go to Ascot. We sent him to the farm and he got rested and he was gelded. He put on some weight,” Biancone said. “We were going to give him a prep race a month ago, but the track was so [sloppy] that day, I decided to scratch him. So, we’ve trained him for this race. He’s ready to go.”
Jonathan Ocasio will ride the son of Pleasant Acres Stallions’ hot freshman sire Leinster for the first time and they have post six.
The Ocasio/Biancone combination was highly successful during the Gulfstream Park Royal Palm Meet that came to a close Sunday, winning 11 of 30 races for a 36% strike rate.
Trainer Michael Yates, who saddled undefeated Rated by Merit for a sweep of the male division of the Florida Sire Stakes series last year, will be represented by Fourth and Central, a homebred son of Stonehedge Farm South stallion Cajun Breeze. Like Squire, Fourth and Central enters the Dr. Fager off a bullet workout. He breezed four furlongs in :46.85, the fastest of 53 workouts recorded at the distance at Gulfstream Aug. 23.
“He does it well within himself… It wasn’t like we asked him to work in a bullet,” Yates said. “He was in a set and was on the outside and his instructions were to just give company with the other horse and let him gallop out strong.”
Fourth and Central, who captured his four-and-a-half-furlong career debut May 31 for Yates’ Shadybrook Farm, is coming off a troubled fifth in the $75,000 Proud Man, a six-furlong stakes contested over a sloppy track and won by Florida-bred Diciassette on Aug. 9.
“I don’t think it was the slop that compromised him. He got away just a step slow from the gate and that was almost a little bit rushed after they outbroke him a little bit. And then he kind of ran up into a trap basically,” Yates said. “He got between horses, behind horses, and he had to check really hard going into the turn. He had all rights to just pack it in then, then he made another run and there was a horse backing up in front of him in the middle of the turn. It was the pacesetter, just stopping in front of him, so he had to check again.”
Yates expressed reservations about Fourth and Central’s far outside post position eight Saturday.
“I don’t like the fact that there’s nobody outside of him because I’ve had so many horses that break from the outside, 2-year-olds, that duck out,” he said. “They give up a lot of ground when they do that, they don’t leave there running straight.”
Marcos Meneses has the return mount on Fourth and Central, who is 8-1 on the morning line.
Tonch’s Horses LLC’s Camigol enters the Dr. Fager off a distant third-place finish in the Aug. 2 Saratoga Special (G2). The Antonio Sano-trained son of Pleasant Acres Stallions’ Neolithic finished second behind Fourth and Central in his four-and-a-half-furlong debut after being taken up in traffic shortly after the start. He came back to graduate by five-and-a-half lengths in a four-and-a-half-furlong maiden special weight race June 26.
Edwin Gonzalez, who was aboard Camigol for his first two starts, returns to the saddle in the Dr. Fager. Camigol has the inside post one and is 6-1 on the morning line.
Trainer Jose Pinchin, who saddled Three Rules for a 2016 FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes series sweep, will be represented by Trelawny in the Dr. Fager. The homebred son of Uncle Chuck owned by Pinchin and Michael Bernard debuted July 13 with a three-and-three-quarters-length victory at the Dr. Fager distance of six furlongs. He came back to finish fourth in the Proud Man.
Jose Morelos has the return call on Trelawny from post seven and they are rated second at 3-1 on the morning line.
Anthony Rogers and trainer Rohan Crichton’s All to Win will be the only other Dr. Fager starter to win at six furlongs. The son of Ocala Stud resident Win Win Win enters the opening leg of the Florida Sire Stakes series coming off an eventful length-and-a-half debut victory Aug. 2.
Emisael Jaramillo has the return call aboard All to Win, who is rated third at 4-1 on the morning line and drew post five.
Also entered are David Humphrey and Move Horse Inc.’s I’m Tuff Enough with jockey Miguel Vasquez, The Equine Consulting LLC’s Ristre will be ridden by Jose Rios and Stonehedge LLC’s Jamalamadingdong with Leonel Reyes up.
Return to the Sept. 4 issue of Wire Wire
