Asher’s Edge Takes on Nine Rivals in Go Cats Go Handicap

5F Turf Dash Highlights Opening Weekend of Royal Palm Meet0

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Just back from a second lucrative trip to the Middle East in two months with stable star Reef Runner, trainer David Fawkes aims for a prize on his home track when he sends out J J Brevan Stable’s stakes winner Ashers’s Edge in Saturday’s $75,000 Go Cats Go overnight handicap at Gulfstream Park.

The Go Cats Go for 4-year-olds and up, scheduled for five furlongs over the turf course, highlights a 10-race program on opening weekend of the Royal Palm Meet, which runs through Aug. 30. First race post time is 12:50 p.m.

Asher’s Edge ran fourth at odds of 54-1 in the Dec. 20 Janus at Gulfstream, beaten less than two lengths by Reef Runner before his fellow 5-year-old stablemate went on to win the 1351 Turf Sprint (G2) Feb. 14 in Saudi Arabia and run fourth in the Al Quoz Sprint (G1) March 28 in Dubai.

Sent off at 23-1 for his next start in the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint, also five furlongs on the grass, Asher’s Edge ran fourth again by the same 1 ¾ lengths behind subsequent Silks Run winner Litigation, who is entered in Saturday’s Shakertown (G2) at Keeneland. He exits the Feb. 14 Turf Dash at Tampa Bay Downs where he finished worse than fourth for just the second time in 18 starts; the winner, My Boy Prince, is also in the Shakertown.

“The last one, I just put a line through that race,” Fawkes said. “I expect him to show up. He’s training good and he’s doing everything right. Looking at the race, he fits.”

Last fall, Asher’s Edge won the Bob Umphrey Sprint when the five-furlong dash was rained off the grass to Gulfstream’s all-weather Tapeta course, over which he has been third or better in eight of nine starts with three wins. He broke from the far outside post that day, and drew outermost Post 10 in the Go Cats Go with jockey Diego Herrera.

“I love the outside post. When he won the [Umphrey] he was on an outside post, he broke clean and just got right outside of horses and ran a really good race,” Fawkes said. “If it rains and comes off, he loves the Tapeta. Either way, he’s ready to run.”

Trainer Joe Orseno entered the pair of stakes winners Mattingly and stakes-placed Extendo, who will break side by side respectively from posts 6 and 7. Ironhorse Racing Stable and Harlow Stable’s 5-year-old Mattingly will be making his second start off an eight-month layoff, having run third by two lengths in a five-furlong optional claiming allowance March 6 on the Gulfstream turf. The top two finishers from that race, Okiro and Extendo, also return.

“We turned him out just to freshen him up because he’s a hard campaigner, and he came back really well. It was a big race. He got into a little bit of traffic trouble with my other horse, no less, but he put in a nice run. I loved the way he was finishing. We think he’ll step up and he’s ready for a big effort,” Orseno said. “We always thought he was late developing so we just took it easy with him the first year or so and ran him sparingly and let him get himself together, but we’re expecting a huge 5-year-old campaign.”

Robert Cotran’s Extendo, eighth from outermost Post 12 in Tampa’s Turf Dash, was the beaten favorite in back-to-back overnight handicaps at Gulfstream last summer before getting the rest of the year off, running fifth in the Successful Native to stablemate And Uwish on Tapeta and ninth behind Reef Runner in the Warrior’s Pride on turf.

Extendo did not race again until the Turf Dash, coming back to be second by a length in the March 6 race at Gulfstream where he set a demanding pace of 20.97 and 42.94 seconds before tiring late.

“We took him to the race at Tampa and from the 12 hole we really just wanted him to be on the lead and set an honest pace and get a good race into him, but he didn’t break sharp and [then] he ran a very even race,” Orseno said. “Every year when we give him a little freshener or stop on him for a reason his first race back he never really does well and then his second race, he’s ready. I knew he was going to run big last time and I wanted him on the lead, but I didn’t want him to go 20 and 42. I think with a clever ride this time maybe he can set nice, honest fractions and I’m hoping that Mattingly is the one next to him and they go to the wire 1-2.”

Yutaka Enterprises Corp.’s Okiro chases a second straight win after rallying from last to beat a field that not only included Extendo and Mattingly but respective fourth through sixth-place finishers Society’s Thunder, Masseto and Test Factor – all of whom return in the Go Cats Go.

Upset winner of the 2024 Animal Kingdom sprinting six furlongs on the synthetic at Turfway Park, Okiro will be making his fifth start since returning to trainer Jose Garoffalo. The 5-year-old’s recent win came after a disappointing eighth in Turfway’s 6 ½-furlong Forego Feb. 13.

“He’s been training very good. He’s in good shape after the last race,” Garoffalo said. “When he ran at Turfway the other day, he didn’t have the luck. There was no pace in the race so he couldn’t close as hard as he usually does. The last time he ran a hell of a race. He’s back at home and he doesn’t have to travel. He’s still in good shape and I think we’re going to have a very good race on Saturday.”

Okiro drew the rail and will have jockey Joe Bravo aboard. Jose Morelos, up for the last race, is at Keeneland Saturday to ride Full Disclosure in the Shakertown and Moonstrocity in the Blue Grass (G1).

“He looks like the best horse in the field. My only concern is the post position,” Garoffalo said. “I like him going into the race. He’s doing pretty good.”

War Bomber, a two-time graded-stakes winner at Woodbine making his first start for trainer Ronald Coy, and Esperon are also entered. Trainer Michael Lerman said multiple stakes-winning 10-year-old Xy Speed would scratch to run in a starter-optional claimer scheduled for five furlongs on the grass Sunday at Gulfstream, where he is one of six horses in for a $50,000 tag.