Trainer Puckett Scores First Stakes Win in Benny the Bull

Trelawny Wins Pressure-Packed Off-the-Turf Bear’s Den
Sunday’s Rainbow 6 Jackpot Pool Estimated at $75,000

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Robert Wayne Jacobs and Dwight Puckett’s To the Eastside, back to a style that produced a pair of narrow wins this spring, led every step of the way to earn his and trainer Andrea Puckett’s first career stakes victory in Saturday’s $100,000 Benny the Bull Handicap at Gulfstream Park.

The seven-furlong Benny the Bull for 3-year-olds and up shared top billing on a 10-race program with the $100,000 Bear’s Den for 3-year-olds going a mile and 70 yards over the all-weather Tapeta course on the final weekend of the Royal Palm Meet.

Ridden by jockey Edgar Perez for the first time since last fall, To the Eastside ($27.40) covered a sloppy and sealed main track in 1:24.53 for his fifth win in 14 starts. The gelded 5-year-old son of Enticed has raced exclusively at Gulfstream.

“It’s sinking in, for sure,” Puckett said of her first stakes win. “It looked like [Perez] had a nice, easy hold. He was the only one that wasn’t working [hard]. He just doesn’t quit. He really tries hard. I was just hoping he had enough to finish, which I thought he did. And he did.”

Sent off at 12-1, To the Eastside broke alertly from his rail post and was comfortably in front through a quarter-mile in 22.53 seconds chased by Latch the Hatch in the two path with Pure Class further out in third. The half went in 45.37 with the top three unchanged.

Perez and To the Eastside turned for home with a tenuous two-length lead and multiple stakes winner Classic of Course beginning to roll toward a big gap along the inside after getting bumped in the early going. A determined To the Eastside was able to shake free at the top of the stretch and hold sway to win by a length.

“We sharpened him up a little last week, and I think he likes the off track,” said Puckett, whose husband is the co-owner. “He had to go from the one-hole, so we told Edgar just to get him out of there and go. If he’s not on the lead, get him to the outside but that’s hard to do from the rail. He rode a perfect race. We’re very proud of him.”

Classic of Course held second, a length ahead of Pure Class, followed by Latch the Hatch, Icelander, 8-5 favorite Back Em Up and Moonstrocity.

Bred in Florida by Tomoka Farms, Inc., Benny the Bull won the 2008 Eclipse Award as champion sprinter after going unbeaten in four races starting with the Sunshine Millions Sprint at Gulfstream Park, also winning the Dubai Golden Shaheen (G1) and True North (G2) and Smile Sprint (G2) handicaps. He retired with nine wins and $2.35 million in purse earnings from 20 starts, including a victory in the 2007 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G1) at Laurel Park.

Trelawny Wins Pressure-Packed Off-the-Turf Bear’s Den

Trainer Jose Pinchin and Michael Bernard’s Trelawny put outside pressure on Diciassette from the start of the $100,000 Bear’s Den Saturday at Gulfstream Park before getting the better of the pacesetter at the finish to establish himself as a stakes winner.

The homebred son of Uncle Chuck, the 8-5 favorite in a field of six 3-year-olds, attended fractions of 24.85 and 50.41 seconds for the first half-mile of the mile turf stakes that was run at a mile and 70 yards on Tapeta due to rainy weather conditions. Diciassette held off the Pinchin trainee through the stretch only to fall a head short at the finish.

Trelawny, who was coming off an optional claiming allowance victory on turf, ran the mile and 70 yards in 1:42.42 under Jose Morales.

“I was actually glad the race was changed to the Tapeta because he ran such a big race the last time he ran on it,” said Pinchin, whose homebred won an allowance race for Florida-breds in April on the all-weather surface.

Diciassette finished second under J.G. Torrealba, 2 3/4 lengths ahead of a late closing Elenique.

Sunday’s Rainbow 6 Jackpot Pool Estimated at $75,000

The 20-cent Rainbow 6 jackpot pool is estimated to reach $75,000 for Sunday’s nine-race program at Gulfstream Park.

First race post time is 12:20 p.m.

The Rainbow 6 spans Races 4-9, kicked off by a seven-furlong claimer for fillies and mares 3 and up led by Florida-bred My girl Nina, who drops in for a $10,000 tag after graduating at the $12,500 level three starts back. She has one win but has been in the money in seven of 13 career starts.

Race 5 is an optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds that will be contested at five furlongs on the all-weather Tapeta course. The 9-5 program favorite from outermost Post 7 is Fourth and Central, winner of the FSS Dr. Fager on dirt last fall that won his turf debut at the distance July 25 in front-running fashion for owner-trainer Michael Yates. Wootun, runner-up in the March 14 Hutcheson on dirt, exits a gate-to-wire score going 5 ½ furlongs on the Tapeta June 26.

Cruzin Man, Sosua Summer and Giant Teddy, respectively 1-2-3 in a July 27 optional claimer at the course and distance, separated by only a length, all return in Race 8, a starter-optional claimer to be run at five furlongs on the Tapeta. Xy Speed, the 10-year-old gelding with 16 lifetime wins, is expected to scratch.

In the Rainbow 6, the jackpot pool is paid out only when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 70 percent of that day’s pool goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners while 30 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.

On mandatory payout days, the entire pool is disbursed to the bettor or bettors holding tickets with the most winners in the six-race sequence. The Royal Palm Meet concludes Monday with an eighth consecutive mandatory payout.

Notes: Jockey Diego Herrera won Race 2 aboard London ($3.40) and Race 10 on Skellig Michael ($3.60) to take an 84-82 lead over Samy Camacho in the rider standings with two days remaining in the Royal Palm Meet … Sal Santoro registered a training double, with Jimbo Bailey ($17) in Race 4 and Fully Entitled ($6.40) in Race 7. Both horses are owned by Bruno Schickedanz … Jockey Jose Morelos visited the winner’s circle with Sofocles ($6) in Race 3 and Trelawny ($5.20) in Race 9, the $100,000 Bear’s Den.