Jacks or Better Farm's homebred C. Zee picked up the pieces in the $100,000 Gulfstream Park Sprint Stakes Feb. 21 at Gulfstream Park and landed his first graded score by 2-3/4 lengths.
In a race where 8-5 favorite Weekend Hideaway failed to menace, and 9-5 second choice Mean Season suffered a bad break and a keen rush into contention, the 4-year-old Elusive Bluff runner handled kindly for jockey Edgard Zayas to secure the win.
Breaking from post 2, C. Zee quickly engaged Happy My Way for the early lead, edging a nose in front to post a :22.63-second opening quarter in the 6-1/2-furlong dash. Mean Season, who was off to a slow start in his first outing since March 1, rushed up between the pair and split horses to claim the lead for a half in :45.11 seconds.
Zayas allowed C. Zee to be passed by others while fourth on the rail, then shifted out around the tiring Mean Season to engage Happy My Way, who had taken the lead.
C. Zee claimed the advantage through three-quarters in 1:10.97, and drew off to finish in 1:17.84 on a fast track.
"We had a bad post position, and when they scratched the 1 [Prudhoe Bay], it got even worse," Zayas said. "We decided that we had to get out of the gate fast and try to get a good position. I saved all the ground that I could, but coming into the stretch, I saw Happy My Way open up a little bit. I got the opportunity to go outside a little bit and he came on strong. I felt good in the stretch. Once I took him outside, he just started running and running. I knew I was going to get there."
Trainer Stanley Gold said he was pleased with the ride by Zayas.
"Edgard showed a lot of grit trying to get out," Gold remarked. "He got him there, so you've got to give him a lot of credit. I told him before the race to get off the rail and go for the lead and go from there, and that's what he did."
Off at odds of 6-1, C. Zee returned $14.20, $5.20, and $3.40, followed home by Happy My Way ($7.60, $4.20) and Speechify ($3.20). Puntrooskie, Weekend Hideaway, City of Weston, and Mean Season completed the order of finish. Previously undefeated in three starts but attempting to return from a hairline fracture, Mean Season eased in the final furlong and was vanned off.
Following the race, Speechify's Team Valor connections said the runner grabbed a quarter and injured himself stumbling at the start.
"Speechify got third on grit in Gulf [sic] Sprint," read the partnership's Twitter account, @TeamValor. "He grabbed a quarter [stumbled at break] & has a gash on a hind leg "
A Florida-bred out of the Distorted Humor mare Diamondaire, C. Zee improved his record to 4-5-3 from 14 starts for earnings of $363,902. The Gold trainee came off a troubled runner-up finish by a length in a Feb. 8 allowance optional claimer going six furlongs at Gulfstream in his 2015 debut. Prior to that start, he was second in the Oct. 3 Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix Stakes at Keeneland behind eventual Breeders' Cup Sprint winner and champion sprinter Work All Week. Earlier in the summer of 2014, he finished second in the Amsterdam Stakes at Saratoga Race Course for Nick Zito.
"He's that kind of horse," Gold said. "I knew he was capable of it. Look at the races he's run and the things he's done. He had a terrible trip last time; he was taken out of the race at the quarter-pole and by the time he recovered he was a half-length short. So I didn't lose faith in him. It was a tough race, and he got it done."