G3 Winner Layabout Returns in $100,000 Soldier’s Dancer

Turf Handicap Joins Smile Sprint to Headline Saturday Program

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Kevin Doyle’s Grade 3 winner Layabout, unraced since late February, is set to launch what the connections hope is a lucrative second half of the season in Saturday’s $100,000 Soldier’s Dancer Handicap for 3-year-olds and up at Gulfstream Park.

The Soldier’s Dancer, scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the grass, is the first of two stakes on an Independence Day program followed by the $100,000 Smile Sprint, also for 3-year-olds and up, going six furlongs on the main track.

Post time for the first of 11 races is 12:20 p.m.

Layabout, trained by Patrick Biancone, most recently ran fourth by 1 ¼ lengths after setting the pace in the 1 3/8-mile Mac Diarmida (G2) Feb. 28. It was the first time the 4-year-old Laoban gelding had finished worse than third in six tries on the Gulfstream turf, four of them wins, three of those in stakes.

“We did give him a break because he’s got a lot of big races coming in the summer and the fall [so] we just stopped on him,” Biancone said. “He ran a lot last year. He ran all year, but there comes a time when you should give them a little break.

“After last time, that’s why we gave him the break. He was a little bit tired. We don’t try to find any excuses, but he did not shine as well as he normally does so we decided to give him some time,” he added. “We have the Arlington Million and then after that we have Kentucky Downs. After that, if everything goes right, maybe the Breeders’ Cup.”

Layabout went 4-for-9 in 2025 with stakes wins in the one-mile Bear’s Den and 1 1/16-mile Tropical Park Derby over the Gulfstream turf, where he kicked off 2026 with a front-running 1 ¼-length score in the Jan. 24 William L. McKnight (G3), contested at 1 ½ miles. He has raced exclusively on grass or the all-weather Tapeta since joining Biancone last spring.

“He had a great year. He’s a real nice horse, a little bit temperamental, but he loves running. He loves the job. We’re lucky to have a good horse like that in the barn,” Biancone said. “His owner said to me the other day, ‘He’s a very strange horse. He can win [at] a mile and he can win [at] a mile and a half.’ He’s just a very good horse, that’s all.”

Layabout was under consideration for the 1 1/8-mile Dinner Party on the Laurel Park turf May 16 on the undercard of the 151st Preakness Stakes (G1) but was withdrawn with a fever. Another illness further delayed his comeback, but he had three half-mile breezes last month at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, for his return.

Keith Asmussen is named to ride Layabout from Post 6 in a field of eight at topweight of 125 pounds, giving from one to seven pounds to his rivals.

“You cannot just run horses every month and never give them a chance to have a little break,” Biancone said. “He was supposed to run in Maryland … and unfortunately, the morning he was going he spiked a temperature and we could not run him. Then we started back and had to give him another break because he got sick. Time passed quickly, but he’s in very good form. I’m very happy with him.”

Biancone also entered 4-year-old Florida-bred gelding I Know I Know, who he co-owns with Amy Dunne. Third in last year’s Soldier’s Dancer, contested at a mile and 70 yards on Tapeta, I Know I Know is more experienced on the all-weather surface, where he made his season debut off a six-month layoff June 12 finishing fourth, beaten four lengths, in an optional claimer while registering a 77 Beyer Speed Figure just one point off his career best.

I Know I Know was also entered in Gulfstream’s one-mile Wildcat Red overnight handicap Friday on the main track, but Biancone said he will scratch from that spot to run Saturday.

“He can get a small piece of the race and it can’t hurt him to run,” Biancone said. “He had a good comeback race. This race will be good for him.”

The other horse in the Soldier’s Dancer with graded-stakes credentials is 7-year-old Missed the Cut, who captured the 2023 Tokyo City (G3) and 2024 San Marcos (G2) and San Luis Rey (G3) going farther at Santa Anita for previous connections. Now with trainer Bobby Dibona, the richest horse in the field with nearly $600,000 in purse earnings won a one-mile optional claimer April 24 and closed to be second off a slow start in the 1 1/16-mile Mr. Steele May 16.

Four horses enter the Soldier’s Dancer off wins. Tomasello, a three-time winner on the turf, captured the one-mile, 70-yard San Cristobal overnight handicap Feb. 28 over the Gulfstream Tapeta in his most recent start. Nemo is 2-for-4 on the Gulfstream turf, taking his unveiling last March and beating elders last time out in an optional claimer Dec. 7, both races going one mile.

Gran Oriente debuted for Royal Palm Meet-leading trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. with a 2 ¾-length triumph over Missed the Cut in the Mr. Steele. Less than a length back in third was Indecisiveness, who returned with a front-running head victory in a one-mile, 70-yard optional claimer on Tapeta June 12.

Completing the field is Arindel’s 4-year-old multiple stakes-winning homebred Tank, most recently fourth in the Mr. Steele after besting six rivals in the FHBPA Turf at the course and distance April 25.

Owned by Herman Heinlein and trained throughout his career by David Vivian, Florida-bred Soldier’s Dancer won 12 of 33 starts and more than $1.5 million in purses between 2006 and 2010. Ten of his wins came in stakes including the 2007 Tropical Park Derby (G3) and Calder Derby (G3) and 2008 Miami Mile Handicap (G3).