HALLANDALE BEACH - Two-time defending leading rider Irad Ortiz Jr., fellow Eclipse Award winner Tyler Gaffalione and British champion David Egan will make their first appearances of the 2025-2026 Championship Meet when the country’s premier winter stand resumes with a nine-race program today.

 First race post time is 12:20 p.m.

     Ortiz, fresh off topping the Churchill Downs fall meet standings, is named in four races today and seven on Friday to begin the quest for his record-extending seventh Championship Meet title, having broken the mark set by Hall of Famer Javier Castellano, who won five in a row from 2011-2012 to 2015-2016. Ortiz also surpassed Castellano’s single-season standard with 140 wins in 2020-2021.

    A 33-year-old native of Puerto Rico and five-time Eclipse Award winner (2018-20, 2022-23), Ortiz ranked first with 109 wins and $6.6 million in purse earnings last winter at Gulfstream with 12 stakes wins led by White Abarrio in the Ghostzapper (G3) and $3 million Pegasus World Cup (G1) and Mindframe in the Gulfstream Park Mile (G2).

    Gaffalione, born and raised in Davie, Fla., is named in three races today and Friday and six on Saturday including Summer Cause for trainer Miguel Clement in the $100,000 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Handicap scheduled for two miles on the grass.

    Last winter the 31-year-old Gaffalione, the champion apprentice of 2015, was second at the Championship Meet with 74 wins and third with nearly $4.2 million in purse earnings whose stakes wins were highlighted by Spirit of St Louis in the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf (G1).

    Based in England, where he was the champion apprentice of 2017, Egan was born in Kildare, Ireland and returns for the third straight winter. He is named in five races today, four races Friday and five on Saturday including stakes-placed I Know I Know in the Jerkens for 3-year-olds and up.

    Egan, 26, won 18 races and $707,450 in purses from 149 mounts at the 2024-2025 Championship Meet before returning for the British season. The winner of several major international Group 1 races including the Saudi Cup, Dubai Sheema Classic, Irish St. Leger and the St. Leger in England, he is a contract rider for Kia Joorabchian’s AMO Racing through 2028.

    Soon to arrive at Gulfstream are Hall of Famer John Velazquez, North America’s all-time leader with more than $513 million in purses earnings, and Corey Lanerie, a lifetime winner of 5,150 races.

    Jockey Rajiv Maragh sits one win shy of 2,000 for his career. He is named in two races today, five on Friday and six on Saturday.

     Spendthrift Farm’s Further Ado (Gun Runner- Sky Dreamer, by Sky Mesa) drew away late to win the Gr. II, $400,000 Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs by 1 ¾ lengths and lead the slate of stakes-winning OBS grads for the week.

    Further Ado verified his 20-length, two-turn maiden win 50 days ago at Keeneland. He earned $242,470 and collected 10 points as part of the “Road to the Kentucky Derby” series, which offered points on a scale of 10-5-3-2-1 to the top five finishers.

    “This was a really good test for him,” trainer Brad Cox said. “He won very impressively last time. Today he had to show a different dimension and really dig down late to get by. It’s very important to get a horse like this started early on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. Hopefully he can bring us right back here in the spring.”

    Further Ado was purchased by Spendthrift at the 2025 OBS April Sale for $550,000 from the Six K's Training & Sales consignment after breezing in :21 1/5. 

    At Churchill Downs, Moonlight (Audible- Sundown, by Tapit) rallied past 6-5 pacesetting favorite Dragoon Guard in deep stretch to win the second running of the $249,835 Cherokee Mile by 1 ½ lengths. Moonlight, a 4-year-old son of Audible, earned his first stakes win and third win in five starts at Churchill Downs for trainer Chris Block and owner Kiki Courtelis’ Town and Country Racing.

    Moonlight was purchased at the 2023 OBS April Sale by his owners for $285,000 from the Eddie Woods consignment after breezing in :21.

    At Zia Park, Lookinforbargains (Practical Joke-Mixed Up Kid, by Lemon Drop Kid) won the $100,000 Zia Park Distaff Stakes in her second stakes attempt. Owned by Paul Jenson and trained by Todd Fincher, Lookinforbargains was purchased by H & R Bloodstock for $85,000 at the 2022 OBS April Sale from the Scanlon Training & Sales consignment after breezing in :10.

    The Nov. 25 Zia Park card also saw Bryon Seymore’s A Thousand Miles (Thousand Words – Swiss Army Wife, by Colonel John) take the $300,000 Zia Park Oaks for trainer Bart G. Hone. The daughter of Thousand Words was purchased for $27,000 by Dennis O’Neill out of the Pick View consignment at the 2024 OBS March sale after breezing in :10 3/5.

  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.”