Xy Speed Sitting on Go for $75,000 Umphrey Turf Sprint

Third of Four Stakes Worth $420,000 in Purses Saturday

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Clear Stars Stable’s multiple stakes winner Xy Speed isn’t going to change his ways at the ripe old age of 9, and trainer Michael Lerman isn’t going to make him try. Lerman seeks out the best spots for his stable star, still going strong in his eighth season of racing, and hopes everything falls into place.

Such is the case with Saturday’s $75,000 Bob Umphrey Turf Sprint at Xy Speed’s home course of Gulfstream Park, where he owns nine wins in 20 tries and has been third or better 16 times. Overall, the gelded bay son of First Samurai has won 16 of 57 starts and nearly $600,000 in purses.

“He’s doing excellent, we’re just kind of watching the weather. He needs firm turf and if he doesn’t get it, he just won’t be in the gate,” Lerman said. “You can’t take him over there under less than optimal circumstances at this stage of his career. Why take chances like that? He’ll give you his ‘A’ race when everything is as it needs to be.”

The five-furlong Umphrey for 3-year-olds and up is third of four stakes worth $420,000 in purses on an 11-race program headlined by the $200,000 Princess Rooney (G3), a ‘Win and You’re In’ qualifier for the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1). Post time is 12:50 p.m.

Xy Speed is entered in the Umphrey for the third straight year. He was scratched last year when rain forced it to be run on the all-weather Tapeta course and ran fifth in 2023, the second of back-to-back years when it was scheduled for the synthetic. It was last run on grass in 2021.

“He’s ready to run his regular effort given the footing. I won’t run him just to run him. If it’s going to be wet, he’s going to wait for another day,” Lerman said. “He can still run down here as a 10-year-old and he’s perfectly healthy, so there’s no reason not to. He’s healthy and he’s still competitive at a high level, so there’s every reason to keep him happy and doing what he likes.”

Xy Speed has two wins, each over the course and distance, and two seconds in six starts this year. In his most recent race Aug. 2 at Saratoga, he bobbled and was brushed at the start, raced in mid-pack early and wound up eighth, beaten 4 ½ lengths under jockey Irad Ortiz Jr.

“He ran into some trouble early and it was soft out there, too. It had rained really hard the Thursday before and even Irad said, ‘Man, he feels awesome but, boy, he can’t handle that soft turf,’ [even though] it was listed as firm,” Lerman said. “He didn’t get beat that far. Irad said he tipped him out and he thought they were going to come back to him in the stretch and they just kind of kept going.”

Emisael Jaramillo, up for an optional claiming win June 8 at Gulfstream, will climb back aboard from Post 4 of nine as the 5-2 program favorite.

Alongside Xy Speed in Post 5 as the 126-pound topweight and 4-1 second choice is Robert Cotran’s Eamonn, who at 7 has enjoyed similar success with eight wins and more than $550,000 in purse earnings from 43 starts. Also a multiple stakes winner, most recently in Gulfstream’s March 8 Silks Run going five furlongs on the grass, he ran third in the April 8 Shakertown (G3) and is 6-for-15 on the Gulfstream turf but 0-for-4 with three seconds on its Tapeta.

Viejo Parro Stable Corp.’s Abrir Caminos (Post 8, 9-2) comes into the Umphrey having run third by two lengths to Reef Runner in the five-furlong Warrior’s Pride overnight handicap Aug. 3 on the Gulfstream turf, and was also second behind Xy Speed June 8. Reef Runner – last year’s Umphrey winner – came back to finish first in the Green Flash Handicap (G3) Aug. 30 at Del Mar but was disqualified to second for interference early in the race.

Trainer Jose D’Angelo entered the pair of Biz Biz Buzz and Winfromwithin. David Bernsen and Leon King Stable Corp.’s Biz Biz Buzz (Post 3, 8-1), third as a 2-year-old in the 2021 Futurity (G3) and Pulpit as well as this year’s Silks Run behind Eamonn, is seeking his first stakes win. He is winless with two thirds from five races since being claimed for $62,500 Feb. 28, including a five-furlong Tapeta sprint last out Aug 9.

“He is doing great. He got a little unlucky in the last race. He needs the pace and then he’s good to go,” D’Angelo said. “He worked really good [Sunday] morning. We’ve been waiting. He can handle the turf or the Tapeta so that’s good. I like the horse. I’m very happy with him.”

Bernsen and Omar Aldabbagh’s Winfromwithin (Post 6, 6-1) will be making just his second start off more than a year layoff. The 7-year-old returned in a one-mile, 70-yard optional claimer around two turns on the Gulfstream Tapeta Aug. 10, setting the pace for a half-mile before tiring to fourth. D’Angelo feels the son of Into Mischief will be better having had the race.

“He ran long for me first time off the layoff and now he’s ready. He came from the layoff last time and now he’s got one race under his belt and I think he’s going to show that better performance for sure,” he said. “He had speed running long so I think you’re going to see him running very close to the lead.”

Also entered are Cruzin Man (Post 1, 12-1), exiting a front-running Tapeta sprint victoryAug. 23; El Apagon (Post 2, 5-1), a June 14 winner on Tapeta; Louie the Sun King (Post 7, 12-1) and Reef Runner’s David Fawkes-trained stablemate Asher’s Edge (Post 9, 20-1), respectively fourth, fifth and eighth in the Warrior’s Reward.