Reload snuck through on the rail to capture his first stakes by a neck in
Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000
Canadian
Turf Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
The Shug McGaughey pupil stalked the pace near the front as Mr. Online led
the field from the start to post fractions of :23 3/5, :46 2/5 and 1:09.
Reload bided his time on the inside as 7-2 favorite Rydilluc was latched onto
the pacesetter on the outside but was unable to gain any ground on the leader.
Reload was saving ground along the rail and snuck through to claim a slim lead
inside the eighth-pole and held on win at the wire.
“Everything worked out great, thank God,” jockey Javier Castellano said. “I’m
thankful and I’m blessed. It’s a great day. The race unfolded perfectly, it was
beautiful. He settled behind the two horses. I really like the way he did it, he
cut the corner and saved all the ground. He was very brave and went through a
tiny hole on the rail. He gave me a great performance today.”
Mr. Online took second, while it was 1 3/4 lengths back to Salto in third.
Unbridled Ocean, Rydilluc, Joha, Abtaal, Hampstead Heath, Bad Debt, Guys Reward
and North Star Boy rounded out the order of finish. Fredericksburg was
scratched.
Reload covered one mile over the firm turf in 1:32 1/5. Sent off as the 9-2
co-second choice, the son of Hard Spun paid his supporters $11.60 for the score.
“He’s been training really well,” McGaughey said. “Sometimes he just doesn’t
show up. But since I put him on grass, it seems to have turned him around. I had
breezed him on it at Payson last March and he didn’t breeze so well. But when I
brought him down here this year, this is what I was going to do with him.
“He can ride any horse, and he rides as well on grass as he does on dirt,”
added McGaughey about Castellano, who captured his sixth win on the day with
Reload.
The five-year-old horse did not start racing until he was three, breaking his
maiden in his second start at Belmont Park, and was a well-beaten fifth in his
stakes debut in the Curlin two starts later at Saratoga. The chestnut returned
to the winner’s circle last April against allowance competition over Keeneland’s
Polytrack and followed up that performance with another win in an off-the-turf
allowance race at Belmont in May.
Reload was off the board again when returning to stakes company in his next
three starts in the Jaipur, Mr. Prospector and Phoenix. He made his first start
on the grass just last month over this course and wired the allowance field by
three lengths. With Saturday’s victory, Reload banked $90,000 to increase his
lifetime earnings to $327,004 from a 17-5-4-1 line.
The Phipps Stable’s Kentucky homebred is out of the Grade 2-placed Mr.
Prospector mare Hidden Reserve, making Reload a half-brother to Grade 3 scorers
Philanthropist and Defer. His granddam is Pure Profit, who produced 1995 older
champion mare Inside Information as well as multiple Grade 1-winning millionaire
Educated Risk. Inside Information foaled Smuggler, the 2005 three-year-old filly
champion.
Reload’s fourth dam is blue hen mare Grey Flight, from whom is descended the
likes of multiple champion and 1963 Broodmare of the Year Misty Morn; champion
sprinter Kona Gold; and champion two-year-old colts and full brothers Successor
and Bold Lad.
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