Muniz Memorial Handicap (Grade 2)- $300.000 Purse
FG- For Four Year Olds and Upward
One Mile and One Eighth on the Turf
March 22, 2025

On the undercard of a spectacular Saturday at FG will be the 20th running of the Muniz Memorial Handicap, a nine-furlong race on the turf for older horses. At inception, this race ran for a $500.000 price tag but has been at the $300.000 level since 2014. We have seen a pair of two-time winners of this race: Dead Silent in 2007 and 2008 as well as Antelope Storm in 2016 and 2017. That won’t happen again this year, as last year’s winner, Flaming Hot, from Mb Stables is not a part of this field. The gelding seemed to fizzle out after a trip to SAR and now races in free track claiming races without a lot of success there, either. We’ll have nine going to post for this year’s race, and as a trainer, Mb Stables will be looking for his third straight win. Here’s our field:

1- Kegger (Threshold, ridden by B Curtis)- It’s been slightly more than a year since the last time that Kegger partied in the winner’s circle, and that was also his last race before being sold to Threshold. A couple of second place runs, highlighted by the Grade 3 Sycamore at KEE in October show that maybe he can get it done here, but he is simply too inconsistent for my liking.

2- Booker (TwinTowersRacing, ridden by R M Hernandez)- Another horse that last won a race in March of last year, and he’s similar to Kegger in that he has had his moments since that win which show his potential. For Booker, he’s run in races with a variety of different conditions as his trainer tries to get that next victory. He works so well, but needs to bring it on race day, too.

3- Tower Isle (Winning Link Stables, ridden by J R Velazquez)- This is one of the two horses in the field that hold the distinction of being the high weight, carrying 121 pounds. It’s not that great of a disadvantage for a horse of Tower Isle’s to overcome. He had a massive win in late August, taking the $500.000 Tapit Stakes at KD, then two starts later, he took the Grade 3 River City Handicap at CD. His last two were not as good, and I am a little concerned about what happened to him in the Ft. Lauderdale Stakes, but he did bounce back well against elite competition in the Pegasus World Cup Turf.

4- In A Love Song (Mb Stables, ridden by T Gaffalione)- Picked up by the trainer from the king of the free track, Spinetingling, but interestingly Spine actually did run him at pay tracks for their last two races together. In October, In A Love Song went from the King of free to the King of pay, and he’s looked good. He’s won of three since then, which was an optional claimer right here, and comes out of a fourth-place effort at the Grade 3 Thunder Road.

5- Prince Ferro (Maxmillion Farm, ridden by A R Rodriguez)- Hesitantly, I will call him an underachiever, given he has only won two of 23, and neither of those wins are in a stake that he has attempted. He’s still doing something right, with winning over $400.000 lifetime, and did run second in the Pacific Classic last summer. Works really well, and is usually in the thick of things, but at some point, another win might be nice. This is his 2025 debut.

6- Sly (Asgar, ridden by P Lopez)- This is a lightly raced horse that will be making his stake debut. In eight starts thus far, Sly has two wins and hit the board five times. His potential here is not about his past performances, but what happened at WO on the first of the month. It was there that he caught everyone’s attention with a stunning work and now, we’ll see if he can translate that to the track. He’s only raced long on the race once, a race that he did win. Naturally, he is one to watch here regardless of if he gets picked.

7- Gallant (Pan Farms, ridden by M Franco)- Closed out his 2024 very well, narrowly missing victory at the AP Mile, and then placing fourth in the WO Mile. Three months later, he would be sold in the auction for $65.010, where he was picked up by Pan Farms. Debuted in his new silks off a four-month layoff at the Pegasus World Cup Turf and was flat. Perhaps, he just needed a race, though, and additionally, Gallant is known to occasionally throw in a dud. More concerning is an apparent slowing down in work times at a mile on the turf.

8- Hawaiian Lord (Our Athletes, ridden by W T Buick)- Here is the second horse in the field carrying 121 pounds, and overall, Hawaiian Lord has been very successful with more than $1,800.000 in earnings. The wins aren’t there as much as the trainer would like, but he did pick up a great victory up at SAR over the summer in the Grade 1 Fourstardave Handicap. The kicked off a stretch of five straight races with triple digit SRF’s, but he was unfortunately not much better in the Pegasus World Cup Turf than Gallant was. Figures to be better here.

9- Mob Ties (Onlineracingclub.com, ridden by K Frey)- The Worst Case Scenario gelding has hit the board in his last six, and while running for Onlineracingclub.com, he has done that in all but one of his 11 starts. Most of them come in overnights, though he was very competitive in a couple of ungraded races that he has been in recently. He’s not a graded rookie, but it has been a while. I wish I could see a recent mile turf work out of him, however. I’m sure it’s fine, but there are some other massive works in this field.

Prediction: 8-6-4-5

— NS

Categories: Grade II, STAKES ARTICLES