HALLANDALE BEACH - John Oxley’s Strategic Risk took advantage of a dream trip under Hall of Famer Javier Castellano to capture Saturday’s $300,000 In Reality at Gulfstream Park, breaking though with a performance Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse always thought he had in him.

    Strategic Risk ($14.60), who won at first asking at Gulfstream Park by 8 ¼ lengths before disappointing in his next three starts, appreciated every inch of the 1 1/16-mile third and final leg of the Florida Sire Stakes, scoring by nine lengths in the race for 2-year-olds sired by accredited Florida-bred stallions.

    The son of Noble Bird settled well off the pace set by Roger That Dana and closely attended by 6-5 favorite Khozalite and Trelawny past fractions of :23.54 and :47.98 seconds for the first half-mile. As Roger That Dana and Khozalite hooked up on the turn into the homestretch for the stretch run, Strategic Risk hit his stride with a menacing run a few lengths back before sweeping to the lead at the top of the stretch and drawing clear.

    “He was very relaxed early in the race. I knew when I asked him, he was going to explode. I was waiting for the best opportunity to ask him, and he did it. He did an amazing job. He handled everything very well,” Castellano said.

    Strategic Risk followed up his winning debut at five furlongs with a distant fourth-place finish in the six-furlong Sanford (G3) and a sixth-place finish in the 1 1/16-mile With Anticipation (G2) on turf at Saratoga. He returned to South Florida to finish an even third in the Oct. 18 Affirmed, the seven-furlong second leg of the Florida Sire Stakes series won by Khozalite.

    “We thought early on he was a really good horse. He broke his maiden. I thought he was about 80 percent at that time. We took him to New York and he just didn’t do great there. He didn’t train that great. He worked on the grass and I tried him on the grass. I brought him home and gave him a little break in Ocala,” Casse said by phone from his Ocala farm. “I said, ‘You know what? He’s trained well enough, I think I’ll try him in the [Sire] Stakes,’ the last one. He ran OK. I told Mr. Oxley, ‘I think this horse is better than he ran.’ He trained well into this race.  Mr. Oxley asked me how I thought he’d run, and I said, ‘I think he’ll run really well.’ I didn’t know he’d win the way he won, but it was nice.”

    Casse was hardly surprised that Oxley’s homebred colt made great strides forward while stretching out two turns on dirt for the first time.

    “I trained his dad. I trained his mom, too, but I don’t think she ever ran. She was by Afleet Alex. His dad held a track record at Pimlico. He won the Pimlico Special at a mile and 3/16ths. He was a multiple Grade 1 winner for Mr. Oxley,” Casse said. “There’s no reason this horse shouldn’t run all day.”

    Brad Cox-trained The Town, who entered the In Reality off a late-closing second in his Oct. 24 debut at Keeneland, recovered from a disastrous start to finish second. Roger That Dana held on to finish third, 1 ¼ lengths back.

    Casse has no specific next-out plans for Strategic Risk, who ran the 1 1/16-mile distance in 1:44.85.  “This was impressive. We don’t have a lot of options after this, so we’ll try some open company,” he said. “The only think I can tell you for sure, it will be around two turns.”

    HALLANDALE BEACH - After declaring a dead-heat for first in the $100,000 Pulpit, the stewards at Gulfstream Park proclaimed Centurion Thoroughbreds Club’s Glorious Boy the sole winner of the Friday’s stakes for 2-year-olds.

    Before finishing on even terms with Bronze Bullet at the wire, the Carlos Martin-trained Glorious Boy ($19.20) bumped with the 2-1 favorite, who was found responsible for the contact nearing the completion of the mile-and-70-yard feature on Tapeta and placed second.

    “I objected because there was some contact that I felt impeded my horse. In the moment, it was so close I wasn’t sure if I won, so I made sure I claimed foul,” Glorious Boy’s jockey Rajiv Maragh said.

    Shipmate set the pace in the Pulpit, originally scheduled to be renewed at 7 ½ furlongs on turf, pressed by A Million Dreams and Behold the King past fractions of 23.40 and 47.57 seconds for the first half-mile. Bronze Bullet, who rated kindly in fourth for jockey Emisael Jaramillo, made a four-wide sweep on the turn into the homestretch to take the lead turning for home. Meanwhile, Glorious Boy put in his run to loom as the sole threat to Bronze Bullet, who drifted out in mid-stretch before dropping down toward the inside rail. Glorious Boy had shifted to the inside to make his stretch run and was put in tight quarters by the favorite nearing the wire.

    “I wasn’t sure about the DQ because it seemed like there was some incidental contact both ways,” winning trainer Carlos Martin said. “But Stacy Prior, trainer Joe Orseno’s assistant who helped us with the horse – Joe and her have been great the whole time we’ve been here, about 10 days – she said to watch it again because the second time our horse’s [behind] kind of went out from underneath him, maybe just enough. A tie is great, but it’s better to have the win.”

    Three Diamonds Farm’s Bronze Bullet had run on Tapeta in his two starts, breaking his maiden at five-furlongs first time out before finishing second in a 5 ½-furlong optional claiming allowance.

    “It was a tough call,” Bronze Bullet’s trainer Jose D’Angelo said. “I think he was tired. They are babies going two turns for the first time.”
    Glorious Boy was coming off a second-place finish in the six-furlong Awad Stakes on turf at Aqueduct after breaking his maiden in his third start.

    “He’s a nice horse. Anytime you stretch them out…we were talking about it a couple days ago and were a little bit leery. Is he just going to be a good closing sprinter, or is he going to stretch out?” Martin said. “My uncle, Greg, did a great job buying this horse as a yearling. The owners are new in the business so it’s exciting. To get the horse to relax and settle [helps] and now you can go turf and Tapeta. There’s a good series of races here. Initially I was thinking I was going to give him a break but if he runs good, I may have to rethink that. Maybe now I’m going to rethink it.”

    Glorious Boy, as well as Bronze Bullet, ran the mile and 70-yard distance in 1:40.74.

     “This horse ran a really great race today. We were expecting a top performance. This hit the point or exceeded the expectations,” Maragh said. “To win the Pulpit Stakes – there’s never been a bad horse that’s won this race. He seems like he still has room to improve and mature.”

    Friday’s Pulpit score moved Maragh within two victories of the 2000-win milestone. “I’m chipping away, and I have some really good mounts this weekend, so I’m really sweating it,” Maragh said.

    A Million Dreams finished third, 3 ½ lengths behind the dead-heated Glorious Boy and Bronze Bullet.

    OLDSMAR - The Tampa Bay Downs stakes schedule kicks off Saturday, Dec. 6 with the 40th running of the $125,000 Inaugural Stakes for 2-year-olds and the 48th edition of the $125,000 Sandpiper Stakes for 2-year-old fillies. Both races will be contested at a distance of 6 furlongs on the main track.

    The Inaugural drew 29 nominations – 27 colts and geldings, plus a ridgling and a filly – while the Sandpiper drew 30 nominations. The Inaugural is a prep race for the 7-furlong Pasco Stakes on Jan. 10 for newly-turned 3-year-olds, while the Sandpiper is a prep for the 7-furlong Gasparilla Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on Jan. 10.

    Among the nominees for the Inaugural is Kentucky-bred colt Hammond, whose two victories include the Juvenile Sprint Stakes at Gulfstream Park. Hammond is trained by Saffie A. Joseph Jr., who will determine whether two weeks is sufficient time between starts for the son of Charlatan.
Joseph has nominated three other horses for the Inaugural: Langvad, a maiden winner on Nov. 8 at Gulfstream; Solitude Dude, whose lone start on Nov. 1 at Gulfstream produced a 9 ½-length victory; and stakes-placed Strategic Reserve.

    Trainer Brian Lynch, who won last year’s Inaugural with Donut God, has nominated two colts. Both are owned by Flying Dutchmen Breeding and Racing, the owners of Donut God and last season’s Gr. III Tampa Bay Derby winner Owen Almighty. The Lynch nominees for the Inaugural are Mob, who captured his career debut on Sunday at Churchill Downs, and Roger That Dana, an easy winner in his debut on Oct. 25 at Gulfstream.

    Top trainer Brad Cox has two Inaugural nominees. His colt Commandment broke his maiden on Nov. 1 at Churchill in his second start, while his other nominee, Zun Day, broke his maiden on Nov. 5 in Louisville.

    Tampa Bay Downs’s leading trainer the last two years, Kathleen O’Connell, won back-to-back runnings of the Sandpiper Stakes with Lindsey Lane and Shananie’s Beat in 1993 and 1994, and has nominated breeder-owner James Chicklo’s filly Gerrards Cross to this year’s race. The Florida-bred is 2-for-2 and won the Colleen Stakes on the turf at Monmouth Park on July 27 in her last start.

    Joseph is represented by five Sandpiper nominees. That quintet includes Tessellate, who won the Nov. 15 Juvenile Fillies Sprint Stakes at Gulfstream by 13 lengths, and My Miss Mo, who broke her maiden by 12 lengths on Nov. 9 at Gulfstream.

    Lynch, who won last year’s Sandpiper with Mrs Worldwide for Flying Dutchmen Breeding and Racing, has nominated two fillies: Flying Dutchmen’s Slay the Day, who broke her maiden on Nov. 16 at Churchill, and owner William K. Werner’s maiden Betty’s Pearl.

    Cox has nominated three, including two-time winner On Time Girl, second in her last start on Oct. 24 at Keeneland in the Dean Dorton Myrtlewood Stakes. 

 Around the oval.

    Long known for his success with 2-year-olds, trainer Wesley Ward sent out Augustin Stables’ gelding Distinct to win the fifth race on the turf by 3 ½ lengths from Giulio Cesare. Pablo Morales rode the winner, who completed the 1-mile distance on the firm course in his first career start in 1:37.25. Distinct was claimed from the race for $16,000 by trainer Jose A. Gallegos for his new owner, Amaty Racing Stables.

    Morales also won the seventh race on the turf on 4-year-old gelding Chicago Theatre. The Glen Hill Farm homebred is trained by Tom Proctor.

    Another impressive performance was turned in by 3-year-old Florida-bred gelding El Chispazo in the second race on the main track. Owned and trained by Juan Arriagada, he won by 13 lengths under jockey Ademar Santos in a time of 1:39.47 for the mile-and-40-yard distance, 1.33 seconds off the track record.

    Tampa Bay Downs is closed in its entirety today. Racing continues Friday with a nine-race card beginning at 12:45 p.m. The fifth, seventh and ninth races are slated to take place on the turf.