Chief Bear Bids to Break Through in Holy Bull
Bear Stables’ 3-year-old colt Chief Bear remains a maiden, but strong races against stakes-caliber competition have trainer Reade Baker keeping the son of Chief Seattle in South Florida for Saturday’s $150,000 Holy Bull Stakes (G3) at Gulfstream Park.
Winless in three tries since his debut on Feb. 1, Chief Bear has been second twice, once as the favorite in an allowance race on Feb. 22 behind eventual Florida Derby starter B B Frank.
“We worked him (Saturday) morning and it was a good five furlongs,” said Baker. Chief Bear’s last recorded drill came on Mar. 31 at the Boynton Beach training center, going five furlongs in 1:01 4/5.
Chief Bear has had excuses for his two losses in maiden races: He was steadied going seven furlongs in his debut and he hit the gate at the start of his most recent attempt on Mar. 23 over a ‘sloppy’ track, going 1 1/8 miles.
“He showed us a lot in his races,” said Baker. “He’s a big, strong colt who clearly wants two turns and he just ended up in a bog in his last race.”
Baker’s next big decision will be finding a rider for the 1 3/16 miles Holy Bull. Jockey Elvis Trujillo rode the Kentucky-bred in his first two starts, but is recovering from a broken wrist. Jose Lezcano, who rode in Chief Bear’s last start, has gone to Keeneland.
Trujillo Close to Return from Injury
Jockey Elvis Trujillo was back in the Gulfstream Park jockeys’ room Saturday, sporting a brace on his wrist while making plans to return to the saddle in the next couple weeks, amazingly soon after a Feb. 23 spill left him with a broken right wrist and neck injuries.
“They say about two weeks,” said Trujillo. “Hopefully we might be able to catch the last few days of the meet here.”
The Gulfstream season runs through Sun., Apr. 20.
Trujillo was aboard KZ Stable’s Dinner Guest in a turf race when the horse fractured a cannon bone and fell. Dinner Guest hurled the 24-year-old into the path of trailing horses with at least one making contact, smashing the wrist and narrowly missing Trujillo’s head.
The spill left veteran race goers shaken, but Trujillo regained consciousness in the ambulance and surgery on the wrist was relatively straightforward.
“I haven’t seen the spill many times,” said Trujillo. “There’s nothing there worth seeing.”
Trujillo is confident of his return.
“Everything has worked out (with the recovery),” he said. “This is what I do and I can’t wait. I want to get 100 percent and start back as soon as I can.”
Catalano Double Saturday Ties Pletcher in Gulfstream Standings
Trainer Wayne Catalano has had a strong meet at Gulfstream Park this season, but didn’t envision himself in a position to challenge larger stables such as four-time defending meet champion Todd Pletcher for the title.
However, after sending out two winners on Saturday’s card , Catalano finds himself in a tie with Pletcher for the lead with 24 victories, two more than Nick Zito, third with 22. Peter Walder is fourth at 20 and Bill Mott fifth with 19.
“By any standard we’ve had a very good meet,” said Catalano Sunday morning. “We didn’t even think about being in this position, because we don’t have the numbers, but now that we’re at this point, it’s a little different. You have to think about it. We do have some yet to run.”
Catalano’s 24 winners came from just 71 starters, a lofty 34 percent rate. The 51-year-old native of New Orleans is a former jockey who had nearly 1,800 winners before embarking on a highly successful career training. He has taken 10 training titles on the Chicago circuit, including six of the last eight at Arlington Park.
All but two of Catalano’s victories have been with horses owned by Chicagoan Frank Calabrese, who is the leading owner at this session with 22 winners, four more than Stronach Stable, which has 18.
The Calabrese-Catalano team gained national recognition with 2006 Eclipse champion 2-year-old filly Dreaming of Anna, winner of two stakes on turf this year at Tampa Bay Downs with her next start to come in either Kentucky or Canada, according to Catalano.