It Was Definitely Jockey’s Day at Gulfstream

A jockey looking for his first Kentucky Derby victory couldn’t have had more encouragement than the rider astride the winner of the Florida Derby and the second-place finisher in the Swale Stakes at Gulfstream Park Saturday.

After he had won the $500,000 Florida Derby with Unbridled and finished second to Housebuster with Summer Squall in the $57,250 Swale, Pat Day stood at his locker and flashed his best I-knew-it-all-the-time look.

“This is St. Pat’s day, isn’t it?” Day said.

Day, winner of three Eclipse Awards and eight races worth $1-million or more, has failed with seven mounts in the Kentucky Derby. But the two horses he rode Saturday in preps for the May 5 Derby would make other jockeys green with envy, on St. Patrick’s or any other day.

“It (a Derby victory) will come in God’s good time,” said Day. “If it’s meant to be, it will come. I think I’m in an enviable position with these two horses.”

Actually, Summer Squall’s race--the first defeat of his career--boosted his Kentucky Derby prospects more than the Florida Derby did for Unbridled, who beat a mediocre field and ran 1 1/8 miles in a pokey 1:52, the stake’s slowest running since 1955. The track record is 1:46 2/5.

Summer Squall, who won five consecutive races while sprinting as a 2-year-old, made his first start since last August. The Storm Bird colt suffered a hairline fracture of a cannon bone last year, and then had his first race as a 3-year-old postponed after he bled from the lungs during a workout.

Running Saturday with an anti-bleeding medication, Summer Squall was beaten by a length in the seven-furlong Swale, losing to Housebuster, a sprinter who won his fifth consecutive race and third in a row this season at Gulfstream. Housebuster’s time was an excellent 1:22 1/5, more than two seconds faster than his winning clocking in the Hutcheson five weeks ago, and three seconds better than 3-year-old colts who ran an allowance race an hour before.

Unbridled, a son of Fappiano and Gana Facil, finished four lengths ahead of Slavic, the 2-1 favorite, who beat Run Turn by a neck. Run Turn was a length ahead of Top Snob, who was Unbridled’s stablemate, both from trainer Carl Nafzger’s barn. Country Day ran fifth, followed by Southland-based Single Dawn, Roanoke, Sunny Serve and Ross’s Warning.

Unbridled, earning $300,000 for his 92-year-old owner, Frances Genter of Minneapolis, was co-second choice with Roanoke and paid $7, $3.60 and $3.20. Slavic paid $3.60 and $3.40 and Run Turn returned $4.80. Unbridled carried 122 pounds, the same weight as the second- and third-place horses.

Unbridled was sold as a yearling for $75,000 by Tartan Farms, when the Florida breeding outfit was phasing itself out of the racing business. Unbridled won his first race at Arlington Park last August and won only one of his next seven starts, a minor stake at Calder Race Course Dec. 24. This year, Unbridled ran fifth in the Tropical Park Derby at Calder and was third in the Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream two weeks ago, finishing only a half-length behind the winner, Shot Gun Scott.

“He should have won the Fountain of Youth,” Day said. “We got behind horses with three-sixteenths of a mile left, and we had nowhere to go.”

Both Day and Nafzger said the slow time was unimportant. Nafzger, who used to ride bulls on the rodeo circuit, retrieved a racing cliche--”Time is only important when you’re in jail”--to address the matter, and Day said: “The track was dead. Summer Squall, though, ran a very big race against the clock.”

Nafzger said Unbridled should like 1 1/4 miles, the Kentucky Derby distance. “The distance will be no problem,” the trainer said. “We knew after his third race that he wasn’t a sprinter. And he proved something else today. He likes people (the crowd was 28,470). That’s a great attribute for a horse going into the Kentucky Derby.”

Horse Racing Notes

Summer Squall was examined after his race and showed no sign of bleeding. . . . Trainer Scotty Schulhofer started three 3-year-olds on the card, and won with the one that had gotten the least attention. Cardoba, an English-raced horse making his first American start, won by 1 1/2 lengths going seven furlongs.