G1 Winner Test Score Pointing to $1M Pegasus Turf (G1)

Jockey Nik Juarez Returns ‘Home’ for Championship Meet
Jan. 10 Sunshine Classic on Radar for G3 Winner Hades

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Amerman Racing’s Grade 1-winning sophomore homebred Test Score, safely in South Florida following a cross-country van ride from California, has resumed training and could make his 4-year-old debut in the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf (G1) Jan. 24 at Gulfstream Park.

Based at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, Test Score returned to the track Tuesday for the first time following his third-place finish in the Hollywood Derby (G1) Nov. 29 at Del Mar. The road trip east came about after FedEx on Nov. 25 suspended its equine air travel until January.

“It was a long trip. They left on [Dec. 2] and they got in on [Dec. 4]. I gave him off over the weekend and he went to the track [Tuesday]. Really he’s handled the trip very well,” trainer Graham Motion said. “When you put your best horses on a van going cross-country, obviously you have concerns. But the Brook Ledge crew did a great job. They were very conscientious about it, and that makes a big difference.”

Test Score began this year at Gulfstream, running third as the favorite in the Feb. 1 Kitten’s Joy going 1 1/16 miles on the turf. He went on to win or place in six of seven subsequent graded-stakes, earning more than $1.3 million in purses, highlighted by a victory in the Belmont Derby Invitational (G1) July 4 at Saratoga.

“We’ll see how he does. He’s here, and I think we’ve got to consider the Pegasus. It gives him enough time to kind of get over this and give him a little freshening,” Motion said. “It’s a big jump for a 3-year-old but he’s been extremely consistent, this horse, really.”

Motion also likes the 1 1/8-mile distance of the Pegasus Turf, for 4-year-olds and up. It is part of a blockbuster program co-headlined by the $3 million Pegasus World Cup (G1) on dirt and $500,000 Pegasus Filly & Mare Turf (G2).

Test Score also won the 1 1/8-mile Twilight Derby (G2) at Santa Anita and 1 1/16-mile Transylvania (G3) at Keeneland, was second in the American Turf (G1) and third in the 1 3/16-mile Saratoga Derby Invitational (G1). He also finished fourth in the Kentucky Downs’ $3.5 million Nashville Derby Invitational (G3), contested at 1 5/16 miles.

“He’s been remarkably consistent when I’ve run him in the right spots. I think when I ran him at Saratoga … we kind of felt that day that maybe the distance was further than he wanted. We did try him at Kentucky Downs because it’s so hard to pass up on that kind of purse and he was going to be one of the favorites,” Motion said. “I do feel strongly, and I could be proven wrong down the road, but I think a mile and an eighth is really his optimum distance. I don’t think he wants to go much beyond that.”

On Saturday, Motion will send out Jonathan Evans homebred Smart Union in the $125,000 Tropical Park Oaks for 3-year-old fillies scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the turf. The bay daughter of 2012 Belmont (G1) winner Union Rags will be making her first start since running sixth in the March 8 Florida Oaks (G3) at Tampa Bay Downs. In her prior start she won a one-mile optional claiming allowance over Gulfstream’s grass course.

“She got a good draw in a big field,” Motion said of Smart Union, who will break from the rail under Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez in an overflow field of 14 that includes two also-eligibles. “I really hadn’t planned on it, but I got to thinking we were pretty close to being ready to run so it just made sense to have her in there. I think she’s done well. I think she’s improved and grown up. She’s going to have to improve to be competitive, but not by too much. She was pretty solid here in the spring.”

Motion also said that he is targeting the $125,000 Via Borghese for fillies and mares 3 and up on the grass Dec. 24 for Newstead Stables’ No Show Sammy Jo, who has won the All Along at Laurel Park and run second in the Long Island (G3) at Aqueduct each of the past two years.

Jockey Nik Juarez Returns ‘Home’ for Championship Meet

Six years since his last full winter in South Florida, where he first rose to national prominence aboard multiple graded-stakes winner Valid, jockey Nick Juarez is back at Gulfstream Park for the Championship Meet.

Juarez, 32, picked up his first win of the 84-day stand aboard Raroma Stable’s Zucchero for trainer Brian Lynch in the Dec. 5 opener, a 7 ½-furlong optional claimer on the grass for 2-year-old maidens. The winning time was 1:29.20 over the firm course.

“It feels great. To come down here and hook up with Team Lynch, he’s been on fire everywhere. He breaks bread with all of us so it’s nice to be part of the team,” Juarez said. “The relationship that we had from years ago and then getting back to Kentucky this year, I got to work back into the barn. His son, Nick, does a great job, too. It’s a great team to be a part of.”

Juarez rode Valid to wins in the 2015 Iselin (G3) at Monmouth Park and 2016 Skip Away (G3) at Gulfstream, and together they finished fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1). When his career ended, Juarez purchased the now 15-year-old gelding that resides at his mother’s farm in Maryland.

The past two winters Juarez rode at Oaklawn Park, where he won his 1,000th career race April 20, 2024 on Greek Heiress. This year Juarez won the $500,000 Virginia Derby and made his Triple Crown debut in Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness (G1) on American Promise for late Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas. Though he grew up in Westminster, Md., where he was a star schoolboy wrestler, he considers Gulfstream home.

“I’m really happy to be here. It really does feel more like home than anywhere else,” he said. “I got to go back to Maryland in May for the Preakness and it was different. Coming back here, it just feels like home. It’s a place where I built myself up and had a horse that really put my footprint out there.”

Juarez ranked fourth with 58 wins at the 2016-2017 Championship Meet to go along with $1.56 million in purse earnings. In 2017-2018 he ranked in the top 10 in both wins (45) and purses earned ($1.23 million). His return to Gulfstream affords him the chance to be around his children, ages 5 and 3.

“To really put it all in a nutshell, it’s family. I’ve been apart from my kids for quite some time and Florida is a place where I can try and get back together with my children,” Juarez said. “I’m a kid from Maryland but coming back down here it’s more of a nostalgic feeling of like, ‘This is home.’ It really feels good just being back down here. I just operate different.

“It just feels really good being back here. I’m in a good head space. I’m the healthiest that I’ve ever been,” he added. “My agent, Ryan Bond, he’s a family oriented guy, too, and that’s something that I think is pushing me in the right direction.”

Jan. 10 Sunshine Classic on Radar for G3 Winner Hades

D. J. Stable and Robert Cotran’s 4-year-old Grade 3 winner Hades, fresh off his first victory in 22 months, is being pointed to the $75,000 Sunshine Classic for Florida-breds 4 and up Jan. 10 at Gulfstream Park.

Based at Gulfstream with trainer Joe Orseno, Hades rallied for an optional claiming allowance triumph going one mile and 40 yards Dec. 6 at Tampa Bay Downs, his first win since starting his career with three consecutive victories capped by the 2024 Holy Bull (G3).

Hades ran second or third five times in 11 subsequent starts, all in stakes, and was disqualified to second for interference after crossing the wire first in the Mr. Jordan overnight handicap July 25.

“It was a long time coming,” Orseno said. “We needed to run him, so I sent him up there. He needed two turns. Really a mile and 40 wasn’t far enough for him, so we’ll get him ready for the Florida-bred race here, the Sunshine Classic.”

The Sunshine Classic, won in 2012 and 2014 by 2013 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner Mucho Macho Man, is contested at 1 1/16 miles.

“He’s run well here. He wants the two turns, and I think he’s got to go even further than the Sunshine Classic distance, but we’ll lead up to that,” Orseno said. “After that race [at Tampa] I had to map out something, and that’s what I came up with. It seems like the next logical spot.

“We didn’t have it in mind going in. He had to prove to me that he’s still Hades. He’s been showing me in the morning, but until they run [you don’t know],” he added. “In the middle of the turn I thought he’s not, but then the light came back on again.”

Hades and jockey Samuel Marin third sat off dueling leaders Forged Steel and Lucas’s Mischief until being taken outside leaving the far turn, then drifted further out through the stretch but came with a steady drive to beat Forged Steel by 1 ½ lengths.

“He showed a lot of grit. When he got to the outside, he made up a ton of ground. I was very happy with him,” Orseno said. “We’ll bring him back, train him here and get him ready.”