Gulfstream News & Notes: Multiple G2 Winner Mohaymen Prepping for Return at Palm Meadows

By David Joseph —-

Multiple G2 Winner Mohaymen Prepping for Return at Palm Meadows
Elusive Joni Seeks to Continue Turf Success in $75,000 Captiva Island
Promising 3-Year-Old Painter’s Rags Recovering from Minor Surgery

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Shadwell Stable’s multiple Grade 2 winner Mohaymen has rejoined trainer Kiaran McLaughlin’s string at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, as he continues working toward a comeback in 2017.

The 4-year-old Tapit colt has not raced since finishing 11th in the seven-furlong King’s Bishop (G1) last August at Saratoga Race Course. He was given time off at Shadwell’s farm in Kentucky before being sent to the Camden Training Center in South Carolina under the watch of trainer Kevin Kahkola.

Mohaymen arrived early Tuesday morning and has galloped the past two days. He had three works at Camden for farm trainer Kevin Kahkola, most recently going a half-mile March 4.

“They did a great job with him,” McLaughlin said. “He’s going to train right now. We’ll probably work him in the next 10 days.”

Mohaymen opened his career with five straight wins including the Nashua (G2) and Remsen (G2) as a 2-year-old and the Holy Bull (G2) and Fountain of Youth (G2) at Gulfstream to open his 3-year-old campaign, establishing him as an early Triple Crown favorite.

He ran fourth behind Nyquist in the Florida Derby and Kentucky Derby, and did not race again until another fourth-place finish in the Jim Dandy (G2) in late July at Saratoga. Throughout the year, McLaughlin expressed concern about the colt’s ability to maintain his weight but extensive testing and examinations turned up nothing.

“He came in [Tuesday] and he looks fabulous. He’s filled out and matured, grown up and put on weight. He really looks great,” McLaughlin said. “We’re excited to have him back and excited to have a big horse for the year, we hope.”

McLaughlin said has yet to pick out a starting point for Mohaymen but didn’t anticipate it would be far off.

“We’ll wait and see how he’s doing,” he said. “He should come pretty quick because he never used to get tired in his training and never would blow hard afterward. It’s too early to tell yet because we haven’t worked him. He was working in South Carolina pretty good.”

Elusive Joni Seeks to Continue Turf Success in $75,000 Captiva Island

Z W P Stable and Non Stop Stable’s Elusive Joni, never worse than third in seven tries since being switched to the grass last summer, attempts to carry that form into her stakes debut in Saturday’s $75,000 Captiva Island.

The five-furlong sprint for fillies and mares 4 and up will mark the first start for the 4-year-old Colonel John filly since winning a third-level optional claimer Oct. 23 at Laurel Park, where she is based with trainer Gary Capuano.

With no racing over Laurel’s world-class turf course during the winter months, Capuano brought Elusive Joni to South Florida to kick off her campaign. She has had six works since early February over Gulfstream’s main track, including a three-furlong blowout in 37.42 seconds Wednesday.

“There’s not a whole lot of options so I’m going to go in there and take a look at it and get her started,” Capuano said. “She’s been training really good down here and moving forward nice. I’m sure it won’t be an easy race. Five-eighths is pretty tough, but she’s pretty tough herself. We have to find out if she can make the cut or not. This is a good spot to start, anyway. We’ll get a race under her and maybe if things work out and she can stretch out, then back home there’ll be some races coming up for her.”

Elusive Joni drew Post 3 in a seven-horse field that includes multiple stakes winners Ruby Notion, making her first start since last July, and Pretty Perfection, who captured the Ladies’ Turf Sprint Jan. 28 at Gulfstream last time out.

Trevor McCarthy, Maryland’s leading rider in 2014 and 2016, will be aboard at topweight of 120 pounds. Capuano said it was McCarthy, up for three of Elusive Joni’s four career wins, that convinced the trainer to try grass where she has four wins, two seconds and a third.

“I never really thought of the turf a whole lot for her; I have to give the credit to Trevor,” Capuano said. “He worked her once at Laurel off a layoff and she worked really good. He came back and he asked me if I ever tried the filly on the grass.

“I said, ‘No, I’m not really looking for grass’ and he said, ‘I think she’ll like it. She acts like she’ll like it,’” he added. “It wasn’t long after that that a race came up. The dirt race didn’t fill so I put her on the grass and she won and broke her maiden that day. It just kept going from there.”

Capuano, 53, is perhaps best known as the trainer of Captain Bodgit, winner of the Florida Derby (G1) and Wood Memorial (G1) in 1997 that went on to finish second in the Kentucky Derby (G1) and third in the Preakness (G1).

“That was a great experience,” he said. “It was my first year down there. We were at Hialeah at the time. I had some live stock down there and he was fun. We got a chance to run him and he was third in the Fountain of Youth and won the Florida Derby and went from there to the Wood and won that. He was favored in the Derby and just got beat. He was a great horse. We didn’t have any setbacks; that’s hard enough to do with any of them. It was a good time.”

Promising 3-Year-Old Painter’s Rags Recovering from Minor Surgery

Promising 3-year-old colt Painter’s Rags, owned and co-bred by Chadds Ford Stables, will miss up to two months recovering from a minor procedure to remove a small chip from his left ankle, trainer Graham Motion said.

The chip was discovered after the bay son of Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Union Rags finished third behind Florida Derby-bound Battalion Runner and Beasley, a leading contender in Saturday’s Tampa Bay Derby (G2), in a 1 1/16-mile optional claiming allowance Feb. 3 at Gulfstream.

It was the first loss for Painter’s Rags who raced once at 2, posting a professional one-length maiden special weight victory Dec. 26 at Laurel Park. He and Holy Bull-winning stablemate Irish War Cry were brought to South Florida from the Fair Hill (Md.) Training Center by Motion in early January.

Dr. Dean Richardson, based at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center, performed the minor operation in West Palm Beach the last weekend of February.

“He came out of the race with a little flake. Dean was nice enough to come down and do the surgery and we were able to do it standing up at the clinic,” Motion said. “He’s going to have to walk for another 30 days and then he’ll probably go up to Fair Hill and start on the AquaTred. He won’t be back in serious training for another 60 days probably. It was pretty minor, but it was enough where I thought we needed to deal with it. It worked out really well.”

Cover Photo: Mohaymen; Lauren King Photo

Gulfstream Park is a Stronach Group company, North America’s leading Thoroughbred racetrack owner/operator. The Stronach Group racetracks include Santa Anita Park, Gulfstream Park & Casino, Golden Gate Fields, Portland Meadows, Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course, home of the world-famous Preakness. The company owns and operates the Palm Meadows Training Center in Florida, and is one of North America’s top race horse breeders through its award-winning Adena Springs operation. The Stronach Group is one of the world’s largest suppliers of pari-mutuel wagering systems, technologies and services. Its companies include AmTote, a global leader in wagering technology; XpressBet, an Internet and telephone account wagering service; and Monarch Content Management, which acts as a simulcast purchase and sales agent of horseracing content for numerous North American racetracks and wagering outlets. The Stronach Group is also a major producer of televised horseracing programming through its HRTV cable and satellite network, as well as a leading producer of social media content for the horseracing industry.