Last Saturday the $100,000 Mr. Prospector HandicapGulfstream Park. looked like it would be a competitive race, but the Marty Wolfson trained Ikigai showed he was the class of the field, cruising to a 2½ length victory over second place Rollers in the grade 3 dash. The race highlighted Saturday’s card at
“They can’t run with him,” said Marty Wolfson. “They really can’t. I loved him today. If he can run 45 over at Calder, you know he can run fast over here.”
Brazilian horse Granzino and Ikigai contested for the lead in the first quarter-mile, but Ikigai pulled away for the lead on the final turn and maintained it down the stretch. Rollers was able to rally for an easy second-place finish, while grade 1 stakes winner Black Seventeen did well to finish third after stumbling out of the gate. The other graded stakes winner, and co-favorite at 2-1 with Black Seventeen, was He’s So Chic. He finished a distant and disappointing fourth.
Ikigai has won five of his last six starts, and only lost the other after stumbling out of the gate in the Radar Love Stakes on Nov. 22. His overall record improved to 5-0-0 in eight starts, and his earnings rose to over $130,000. Ikigai covered the six-furlong distance in 1:09.37 over a fast track and paid $17.40.
“I’m not sure how far he’ll go,” Wolfson said of Ikigai. “The way he ran today maybe seven furlongs, although I’m really not sure if I even want to run him that far.”
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