The GP Sprint Championship ($125.000 Purse)
GP- For Four Year Olds and Upward
Six Furlongs on the Dirt
February 25, 2023

It’s time to take a look at the GP Sprint Championship, and the first thing on your mind may be: where is everyone? Only five horses were entered into the race, and this is a stake that has run with at least eleven horses every year since 2016. The conditions for the race have not changed, and since 2016, the purse has only been higher than the present $125.000 on one occasion. Last year, in a field of eleven, Chip Away got the victory for South Shore Stables, and the gelding would appear in the BC Sprint later that year. The horse is still active today and was recently seen training at FG. As mentioned, we have just five in this field, and they should still provide us a strong race. Let’s take a look at them!

#1- Tko (Axeman, ridden by Al Gonzalez)- In his younger days, this gelding was more well known for his successes running for Fractious, and then John Henry. Last October, after a poor performance in the Grade 2 Vosburgh, Tko changed hands to Axeman for $75.000 in a private sale. He’s been running well since then, with two wins in four starts and finishing in the money in all of them. Two of those were ungraded stakes with similar conditions as this one, and in his last race, which was an open allowance, he earned a 100 SRF. Tko may be ready to knockout this field.

#2- Sneaky Wolf (Asgar, ridden by E J Zayas)- Asgar picked this one up very cheaply over a year ago, with an $8.000 claim. At first, he upgraded the caliber of races he was in, then backtracked. It’s hard to see when exactly the trend changed with the trainer as to when he realized he had a real good one. His wins are all in overnights, so he does not have the signature race that grabs your attention. The most appealing result is his runner up in the CC Emerald at CD last November, and this will be another good opportunity to prove himself against quality opposition.

#3- Junkyard Dog (Nakamura Stables, ridden by E J Wilson)- Showed some promise as a two-year-old, and was entered into a pair of graded races at SAR as well as the Iroquois at CD and was third in all of them. Junkyard Dog also finished second in the $100.000 Winkfield to start his three-year-old season but was then sold in February and didn’t make it back to the track again until May. He has not really been able to get in a rhythm and has not done much sprinting. When he did in October at FL, he won. But this is not a FL allowance and I feel Junkyard Dog is an X-factor that could finish in any of the five possible positions here.

#4- Blitz Point (Lemax Farms, ridden by J J Castellano)- This is another horse that was claimed cheaply, as Lemax only needed $10.500 to claim him in May of last year. Since then, we have only seen Blitz Point in overnights, and many of those have been starter allowances. He’s done an excellent job in those, hitting the board in all but one of those eight starts, with a pair of wins mixed in. In the GP Sprint Championship, he will get the test of his life, but he has definitely earned it.

#5- Binnington (Riggins Racing, ridden by Jo Ruiz)- It’s very nice to see Riggins popping up more and more in SRF articles, and I hope the trend continues. This will be the first race for Binnington with Riggins Racing, as he was sold in a private sale on the 7th of this month for $50.000. Fifty, of course, is a perfect number to have associated with a horse named this. Binnington has passed through a couple of trainers at this point and has not stepped up when entered into a graded stake in the past but has handled ungraded races like this one just fine. That should continue.

Prediction: 1-2-5-4

— NS

Categories: STAKES ARTICLES, Ungraded