Gulfstream Park Turf lures Kip Deville

Kip Deville is a nine-time stakes winner (Michael J. Marten/Horsephotos.com)

Multiple Grade 1 hero KIP DEVILLE (Kipling), runner-up in the Breeders’ Cup
Mile (G1) two starts back, will launch his 2009 campaign in Sunday’s $300,000
Gulfstream
Park Turf H. (G1). Owned by IEAH Stables et al and trained by Richard
Dutrow, the six-year-old horse tops a field of 11, including one main-track only
entrant. The Gulfstream Park Turf has been cut back to 1 1/8 miles this year.

An earner of more than $3.1 million, Kip Deville exits a ninth in the
December 14 Hong Kong Mile (HK-G1), which was contested over a clockwise oval
that the gray horse didn’t appear to like. Winner of the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Mile
and last year’s Maker’s Mark Mile (G1), Kip Deville finished a very respectable
second to Goldikova (Ire) (Anabaa) in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita in
October. Regular rider Cornelio Velasquez has the mount on the Oklahoma-bred.

RED ROCKS (Ire) (Galileo [Ire]) posted a sharp two-length score over Curlin
in the Man o’ War S. (G1) last July, but the six-year-old horse was dogged by
physical issues the rest of the year and made only one more appearance under
silks, recording an unplaced finish in the Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1). Winner of
the 2006 Breeders’ Cup Turf and third in the 2007 edition, the Mark Hennig
trainee merits serious respect if ready to run on Sunday. Javier Castellano, who
was last seen guiding Red Rocks in the Man o’ War, regains the mount.