Trainer Barclay Tagg sends out two of the eight older horses entered in Saturday’s $150,000 Pan American Handicap (G2) at Gulfstream Park, and both Partingglass Stable and The Three Colleen’s 7-year-old gelding Dave and Joseph Joyce’s 6-year-old Irish-bred Fracas have legitimate credentials to win the 1½ miles turf marathon.
Jockey Rosie Napravnik will fly in from her base at Laurel Park in Maryland for the mount on Dave.
A New York-bred son of Ends Well, Dave scored his biggest victory in the 11-furlong Red Smith Handicap (G2) at Aqueduct in November on ‘yielding’ ground.
Dave ran another good race to finish fourth in the 12-furlong W.L. McKnight Handicap (G2) at Calder in mid-December, beaten two lengths by the winner. In his lone start since, he finished sixth in the 11-furlong Gulfstream Park Turf Stakes (G1) here on Feb. 23.
Fracas is 6 years old, but new to the Tagg stable this season after making his first 16 career starts in Europe, winning a Group 3 in Ireland last year and finishing a respectable fifth in the Tattersalls Gold Cup (G1) at the Curragh behind Notnowcato and Dylan Thomas.
Jockey Eddie Castro rides Fracas, a son of In the Wings, that will get ‘blinkers on’ Saturday after a good fourth-place effort in the Mervin Muniz Jr. Handicap (G2) at Fair Grounds on Mar. 8 in his American debut, beaten 3½ lengths for it all by Proudinsky in a strong field.
Another contender in the 47th edition of the Pan American is Patricia Generazio’s 5-year-old gelding Presious Passion with jockey Ariel Smith aboard for trainer Mary Hartmann. The chestnut son of Royal Anthem won the W.L. McKnight with Dave fourth, but will have to do better than his 11th-place effort last out in the Mac Diarmida Handicap (G2) on Mar. 16 when he ran off on the lead.
Completing the field for Pan American are Bruce Lunsford and Lansdon Robbins III’s Drilling for Oil, Manoel Cruz; Kenwood Racing’s Notice Me Now, Jose Rivera II; Dr. Gene Voss and Paul Dixon’s Ascertain, Manuel Aguilar, Eliot Mavorah’s Interpatation, Tommy Turner; and Flying Zee Stable’s French Vintage, Junior Alvarado.