MJC Laurel: Xy Speed Chasing Fourth Straight Home Win in Friday Feature

By David Joseph —-

Xy Speed Chasing Fourth Straight Home Win in Friday Feature

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Following an out-of-town summer campaign that trainer Michael Lerman termed “incredibly unlucky,” Clear Stars Stable’s multiple stakes-winning turf sprinter Xy Speed returns to South Florida looking for a fourth straight win at Gulfstream Park in Friday’s stakes-quality feature.

The third-level optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds and up, scheduled for five furlongs on the grass, is carded eighth on a nine-race program that begins at 12:25 p.m. All seven horses entered are stakes winners including 2022 and 2023 Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint (G3) champion Yes I Am Free.

Xy Speed is the 7-5 program favorite having finished third or better in 11 of 13 career tries at Gulfstream, six of them wins including three straight in the spring capped by the April 27 Sunny Island and May 25 Pay Any Price handicaps, all at five furlongs.

“I am thrilled to have him back here. I think he’s happy to be home, too,” Lerman said. “He had an incredibly unlucky summer.”

Based at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, Xy Speed had his overall win streak snapped at 3 in the 5 ½-furlong Select Aug. 17 at Monmouth Park, his first start since the Pay Any Price following a trip to Saratoga where he was entered in the Troy (G2), which rain pushed back a week to Aug. 10 and then forced it to be moved off the grass, causing him to be scratched.

“We went to Saratoga to try and get him to run up there. They canceled the Troy the first week and it came off the turf the second week,” Lerman said. “We had the Monmouth race as a backup, and then it monsooned an hour and a half before the race so even though it says the course was firm it was soft as could be, like a bog, as you can tell by the 1:04 for the 5 ½ [furlongs]. He still ran his eyeballs out.”

Lerman next had the Bob Umphrey Turf Sprint penciled in Sept. 21 at Gulfstream, but another round of rain had the race switched to the all-weather Tapeta course. Instead, Xy Speed was diverted to the 5 ½-furlong Woodford (G2) Oct. 5 at Keeneland, where he raced between horses and finished seventh, beaten less than three lengths.

“I wanted to run him here and it came off the turf, and that was the second time this summer he was even-money in a stake and it came off the turf the day of the race,” Lerman said. “I wanted to run him in the Woodford. I had to switch jocks at the very last minute, [and] he got in a lot of trouble behind a very fast pace. I was thinking I wanted to go to the Breeders’ Cup [Turf] Sprint with him.”

Paco Lopez gets the riding assignment on Xy Speed from outermost Post 7 at co-topweight of 125 pounds.

“He’s as good as ever. He’s 8 turning 9, but you’d never know it by being around him, that’s for sure. He’s as happy as can be, as sound as can be and you have to love a horse like that,” Lerman said. “I think there’s sufficient speed in there and hopefully it sets up the way he likes it.

“It came up tough but that’s OK. He needed a bridge race between now and the winter meet, because you really can’t sit on a horse like this for eight weeks without a race. It’s a good race for a Friday here, let me tell you,” he added. “Now he’s back home where he belongs and hopefully he runs like he usually does when he’s here.”

Yes I Am Free is winless in his last five starts and one-for-six this year and is looking to get back to the form that saw him register three wins and four seconds in 2023. The 6-year-old Uncaptured gelding, winner of Gulfstream’s 2022 Silks Run, is one of two in the field trained by Laura Cazares for Golden Kernel Racing Stable along with 2023 Janus winner Panther Island.

Reef Runner, a 3-year-old The Big Beast colt who captured the five-furlong Umphrey last out in his first try against older horses; Doctor Jeff, winner of the 2021 Atlantic Beach at Belmont Park; Tahoe Sunrise, dead-heat winner of last summer’s Shared Belief at Del Mar; and 2022 Sophomore winner King Cab complete the field.

Race 8 is the penultimate leg of the 20-cent Rainbow 6, which is expected to see its jackpot pool grow to an estimated $100,000 after going unsolved for a fourth consecutive racing day Sunday. The popular multi-race wager last returned multiple mandatory payouts of $40,299 Oct. 26.

Friday’s Rainbow 6 spans Races 4-9 and includes a maiden special weight for 2-year-olds in Race 5, also scheduled for five furlongs on the grass, that drew a wide-open field of 11 featuring second-time starter Fling Ready, a $350,000 son of More Than Ready that ran sixth in debut Oct. 19 at Keeneland, and Fighting the Wars, a $230,000 yearling by War of Will making his first start.

The Rainbow 6 jackpot pool is only paid out when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 70 percent of that day’s pool goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners, while 30 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.

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