Lynx Gets Chance to Bounce Back in $60,000 Juvenile Fillies Sprint

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Julio Manuel Garriga’s No Name Dude, riding a two-race win streak, will look to make it three in a row with a second straight stakes triumph in Saturday’s $60,000 Juvenile Sprint at Gulfstream Park.

The Juvenile Sprint for 2-year-olds and $60,000 Juvenile Fillies Sprint for 2-year-old fillies, both restricted to Florida-breds and going seven furlongs, co-headline an 11-race program that begins at 12:25 p.m.

No Name Dude opened his career with successive six-furlong sprints, running third in debut Aug. 12 before graduating with a determined half-length victory Sept. 17 against fellow state-breds. A gelded son of Grade 1 winner The Big Beast, No Name Dude had both a distance and surface switch for his most recent start in the Oct. 8 Hollywood Beach going five furlongs on Gulfstream’s Tapeta course.

Showing a new dimension, No Name Dude rated behind horses through blazing splits of 21.48 and 44.44 seconds before digging in between rivals to prevail by a half-length in 56.67. Emisael Jaramillo is named to ride for the first time.

“I like the horse a lot. He has run really good on the dirt and the Tapeta and he ran a really nice number the last time,” D’Angelo said. “My only question with him is the seven furlongs. But we have Jaramillo up and I think if we have good fractions then he can do good at this distance.

“The trick with this horse in this race is we need good fractions for him, not crazy fractions. He won on the lead on the dirt and he ran behind the speed on the Tapeta. Now it’s longer on dirt so we’re going to hope for a nice start and let him go wherever the horse wants to go, on the lead or second close to the lead,” he added. “His first time going seven furlongs he’ll be very aggressive so if he goes out there fighting with another horse he’s going to pay for that in the stretch.”

No Name Dude will face a familiar foe in Alex and JoAnn Lieblong’s Big Save, who ran third behind the subsequent stakes winner Sept. 17 before stretching out to seven furlongs to graduate in an Oct. 7 maiden special weight sprint at Gulfstream under Miguel Vasquez, who gets the return call.

“He’s training really good and worked good the other day. The first time I ran him I sprinted him and he kind of ran mid-pack and then when he came back with a little added distance I thought he’d be tough, and obviously he was,” trainer David Fawkes said.

“I thought he was pretty damn impressive, because he was kind of running over horses the whole race,” he added. “The jock was struggling to slow him down. I thought he ran really well, and I think he’ll run well again here Saturday.”

Also entered are Turbo, runner-up to undefeated Awesome Strong in the FSS Dr. Fager and Affirmed this summer; Zydeceaux, a nine-length maiden claiming winner Aug. 13 at Gulfstream in his only start; fellow last-out winner Souper Blessing, who graduated by 3 ¼ lengths on the all-weather surface at Presque Isle Downs Sept. 28; Dangerous Ride, trying dirt for the first time after racing on turf and Tapeta including three off-the-board stakes attempts; and maidens Diamond Cool, seventh in the FSS In Reality, and Bold Majestic.

Lynx Gets Chance to Bounce Back in $60,000 Juvenile Fillies Sprint

Arindel’s Lynx, already a two-time stakes winner, gets the opportunity to rebound from her first loss in four career starts when she lines up against six rivals in Saturday’s $60,000 Juvenile Fillies Sprint at Gulfstream Park.

Trained by Carlos David, Lynx rattled off three straight victories, each in come-from-behind fashion, highlighted by a 1 ¼-length triumph in the six-furlong FSS Desert Vixen Aug. 6 and a popular 4 ¾-length score in the seven-furlong FSS Susan’s Girl Sept. 3.

Lynx was denied a sweep of the FSS 2-year-old filly series when she ran second as the favorite to Atomically in the 1 1/16-mile My Dear Girl Oct. 1. She returned from that effort to post a bullet half-mile work in 48.30 seconds Oct. 16 at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County – the fastest of 35 horses at the distance.

Three last-out winners that figure to garner some attention are Charlie’s Wish, Hoax and Esoteric. Royalight Racing’s Charlie’s Wish debuted against state-breds Oct. 1 at Gulfstream and pressed the pace from her rail post before taking a lead into the stretch and drawing away to win by 3 ¼ lengths going seven furlongs.

“She had a lot of reasons to get beat, but she ran very, very well,” trainer David Fawkes said. “She’s one of those horses that you’d never know is in the barn. She’s very quiet, and always does everything right. She came in and just absolutely never missed a beat. She went right to the races, and actually ran a little better than I expected first time out. I thought she might need the race but, no, she didn’t. I expect her to move forward again.”

NK Racing and LNJ Foxwoods’ Hoax, trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, will be making her third start and first since a nose triumph in an open maiden special weight sprinting 5 ½ furlongs over Gulfstream’s Tapeta Oct. 7. Nova Stable’s Esoteric overcame a wide trip to graduate by 1 ¼ lengths in her lone start Sept. 22 on the dirt at Gulfstream.

Golden Rock Thoroughbreds’ Alternate Rock won a five-furlong maiden special weight sprint against state-breds June 24 at Gulfstream and returns to the main track after back-to-back turf starts where she finished second in the five-furlong Colleen July 24 at Monmouth Park and a troubled ninth in the 6 ½-furlong Catch A Glimpse Aug. 20 at Woodbine.

“She’s a very nice filly. We went with her to Monmouth and she ran a nice race on the grass there. After that we were unlucky at Woodbine because right at the start she bumped the gate and she lose some lengths and that’s why she ran bad there,” trainer Jose Francisco D’Angelo said. “We gave her a lot of time to recover from the trip and all the moving with her. The filly has improved a lot. She’s breezing very, very nice and I like her a lot.

“This is the kind of horse that has run good on the dirt and good on the grass, too. My guess is that she would run good, too, on the Tapeta,” he added. “I don’t think she’s going to have any problem going longer. This is the longest race that she’s run so far. I have confidence in her that she’s going to run a good race. She’s training very well.”

Rounding out the field are Dorth Vader, third in the My Dear Girl, 4 ¼ lengths behind runner-up Lynx; and Extra Indy, most recently fourth in the Our Dear Peggy going a mile and 70-yards on Gulfstream’s Tapeta Sept. 17.