Grand Mo the First Stays Home for $75,000 Soldier’s Dancer

Multiple Graded-Stakes Placed 4YO Ran in 2024 Kentucky Derby

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Granpollo Stable’s Grand Mo the First, a stakes winner on turf that is graded-stakes placed on both grass and dirt and 14 months removed from a run in the Kentucky Derby (G1), will come full circle for his next start in Saturday’s $75,000 Soldier’s Dancer at Gulfstream Park.

The Soldier’s Dancer for 3-year-olds and up going a mile and 70 yards on the all-weather Tapeta course is the second of two stakes on an 11-race program following the $75,000 Smile Sprint going six furlongs on the main track. First race post time is 12:50 p.m.

Trained by Victor Barboza Jr., Grand Mo the First will be racing on Tapeta for the first time since beginning his career with back-to-back wins over the surface in August and September of 2023, also at Gulfstream.

Barboza bypassed Saturday’s one-mile Kelso (G3) on the grass at Saratoga to keep Grand Mo the First, a 4-year-old son of champion Uncle Mo, in South Florida for at least another start.

“My first plan was to move him to Saratoga for the Kelso but the owner decided to change the plan and stay home with the horse and run on the Tapeta,” Barboza said. “He’s won the only two times he’s run on the Tapeta and that’s very important for me, and the distance. I think it’s a very good decision to stay at Gulfstream.”

After a busy start to his sophomore season, Grand Mo the First has run just once since early September. He returned from more than eight months away in a 7 ½-furlong optional claimer on the Gulfstream turf May 24, running second by a neck as the favorite in a three-way photo finish.

“The horse maintains very good condition, but I think the last race he was only 80-85 percent. Now I think the horse completed his conditioning for this race. He had an impressive breeze last week,” Barboza said. “I think the horse is a much better horse for the last year. I don’t know what the result Saturday is going to be, but I think he’s doing good for the race.”

Grand Mo the First ran third in the 2023 Zuma Beach (G3) going a mile on the Santa Anita turf to cap his juvenile campaign, then began 2024 on the dirt with thirds in the Swale at Gulfstream, Tampa Bay Derby (G3) and Florida Derby (G1), the latter earning him a spot in the starting gate for the Kentucky Derby, where he ran 18th.

Three months later he returned to the Gulfstream turf with a determined victory in the one-mile Bear’s Den, then stretched out to 1 1/8 miles for the Virginia Derby (G3) at Colonial Downs where he was second to Deterministic before getting the rest of the year off. Each of his last three races have been decided by a neck.

“The [Kentucky] Derby was a great experience,” Barboza said. “Last year we were very aggressive with the horse, but to get into the Derby I needed to put some races together. After he ran at Colonial Downs in the Virginia Derby, I talked to the owner and said the horse needs a freshening on the farm. They sent him to the farm and he came back very well. He’s a more focused horse now and [stronger]. I like the way he’s doing.”

Favored at 9-5 on the morning line, Grand Mo the First will have Miguel Vasquez aboard from the rail in a field of nine.

“The horse has run good on all the different tracks. He’s run very well on the dirt and the Tapeta and turf,” Barboza said. “For me, the best surface for the horse is the turf but the Tapeta is very similar. I don’t think it’s a problem.”

Relampago Verde will be making his second start since being purchased for $140,000 at Keeneland’s April horses of racing age sale by Michael Iavarone and Sanford Robbins and moved to trainer Bobby Dibona. The 5-year-old gelding ran an even third as the favorite behind Lure Him In in the Wildcat Red overnight handicap going 1 1/16 miles on Gulfstream’s main track June 8.

“He didn’t break too good for me the first time. I expected he’d be right on the pace kind of stalking right there and the winner opened up and the race was kind of over,” Dibona said. “But it wasn’t bad. I think we can build on that. I worked him on the Tapeta on Saturday, and I thought he looked well. I made a rider change, just trying to shake it up.”

Emisael Jaramillo has the call on Relampago Verde, whose name means ‘green lightning’ in Spanish, from Post 4. They are rated as the 9-2 third choice behind Grand Mo the First and Smith Ranch Stables’ Just a Photo (3-1), runner-up in the 1 1/16-mile Mr. Steele May 17 on the Gulfstream turf.