Florida Sire Stakes attracts the usual barns of Gold, O'Connell, Fawkes

Florida Sire Stakes attracts the usual barns of Gold,

O'Connell, Fawkes

Stanley Gold and Kathleen O'Connell have significantly

showcased their respective talents for training two-year-old Thoroughbreds to

early success in the Florida Sire Stakes (formerly the Florida Stallion Stakes).

The veteran trainers, who have saddled the winners of 22

Florida Sire Stakes (FSS) events between them, will seek to add to their respective

achievements Saturday when

Gulfstream Park plays host to the series of stakes

for juveniles sired by stallions standing in Florida for the first time in its

33-year history.

Gold, who has saddled 12 FSS winners, and O'Connell, who

has visited the winner's circle with 10 FSS winners, are scheduled to each

saddle three horses for the $100,000

Dr. Fager

division for colts and geldings, which attracted eight entries.

Gold and O'Connell, who also each entered two fillies in

Saturday's co-featured $100,000

Desert Vixen

division, have saddled four of the

last five winners of the Dr. Fager. Gold, who captured the six-furlong sprint

with Jackson Bend (2009) and Fort Loudon (2011), is slated to saddle Sing

Praises, Of Course and Social Media. O'Connell, who won the last two runnings of

the Dr. Fager with Two T's at Two B and My Brown Eyed Guy, entered Jaiden's

Best, Taama and Wayne's Way.

Leading the Gold-trained trio of Jacks or Better Farm

homebreds is Sing Praises, who scored a 20-1 upset in the Birdonthewire. The

chestnut son of Hear No Evil rebounded from a second-place finish in his June 29 debut,

in which he started slowly, to post a front-running 5 1/2-length score in the

first stakes for two-year-olds in South Florida this season.

"We knew he could run. If you watched his (debut) race, he

got left in the gate and within a quarter of a mile he got right up there and

got used up some," said Gold, who awarded the return mount to Ramsey Zimmerman.

"The next time, he came out of the gate and didn't have to get used up, and that

was it."

Of Course, who broke his maiden in this third lifetime

start, finished fourth behind Sing Praises in the Birdonthewire -- a subpar

performance blamed on a missed workout due to rainy conditions leading up the

race.

"My feeling is to throw that out," stated Gold, who named Edgard Zayas to

ride Of Course. "He came back tired. Of course, any horse would come back tired

after trying to keep up with Sing Praises that day."

Social Media, who finished on the board in his first two starts, broke

through with a dominating victory when dropped into a $50,000 maiden claimer on

August 1 at Gulfstream.

"The decision was made if we lost for $50,000, we'd be

happy to sell the horse for $50,000. According to the time frame, I still hadn't

given up on the Sire Stakes if he won," explained Gold, who tabbed Abdiel Jaen

to pilot Social Media. "He got the job done. If he didn't get the job done, he

wouldn't be in the Sire Stakes."

O'Connell's three Dr. Fager entrants all are coming off

maiden-breaking victories. Wayne's Way, second in his debut, scored his first

career victory by 2 3/4 lengths at Calder on June 22. Jaiden's Best, who finished

second behind his stablemate that day, came right back to win by three at Gulfstream on July 20.

Wayne's Way and Jaiden's Best are owned by breeder Gil Campbell. Lynne Martin-Boutte's

Taama scored at first asking, winning at Gulfstream on July 11 by 2 3/4 lengths.

O'Connell said saddling three horses in a race for two

owners presents no problem.

"You have to look at it this way: if these horses were

trained by other people they'd still be running against each other. My job is

taking them over there in the best possible shape, whether it's one, two, three

or four," O'Connell noted. "I feel lucky to have three horses that I think are

qualified and good enough to step up to the plate."

Pedro Monterrey Jr. has the mount on Wayne's Way, Eduardo Nunez is named to ride Jaiden's Best

and Jose Gutierrez has the call on Taama.

O'Connell, like Gold, derives great pleasure and

satisfaction while working with two-year-olds with the Florida Sire Stakes

providing great incentive.

"To me, the (Sire) Stakes are very special because I just

love two-year-olds. It's always held a special place for me," O'Connell said.

The Douglas Potter-trained Fierce Tide, a recent maiden winner at Gulfstream,

and the Luis Ramirez-conditioned Rockemagain, winless in one start,

round out the Dr. Fager field.

While eight colts and geldings will line up in the six-furlong Dr. Fager,

seven fillies are scheduled to go in the Desert Vixen at the same distance.

Trainer David Fawkes was impressed from the moment

Stonestreet Stables' Florida-bred filly Katie's Kiss arrived at his barn

earlier this year. So, needless to say, he couldn't help but experience a

letdown with the Kantharos filly's first start. She

weakened to finish third in her July 5 debut, only to be disqualified and

moved down to seventh for drifting out and interfering with another filly.

However, Katie's Kiss ran to the expectations Fawkes originally had for her

when cruising to a dominant 5 1/2-length win

in her second start on July 26. That day, the bay filly took command from the start

and the win was never in question.

"Honestly, I was a little disappointed with her first race,

because I thought I had her fitter than she really was," Fawkes admitted. "She

really needed the first race. (When she won second-time out), that's what I

expected out of her originally. She's a very talented filly, and I expected her

to run really well."

Fawkes swept the

FSS in 2008 with Big Drama,

who went on the win the Breeder's Cup Sprint and earn an Eclipse Award as

the nation's top sprinter in 2010.

Katie's Kiss is the first winner for her young sire Kantharos, who was undefeated as a

juvenile and won the Bashford Manor and Saratoga Special by a

combined 16 3/4 lengths during his brief three-race career in 2010. So far, Fawkes has

liked what he's seen from the horse's offspring.

"I always liked (Katie's Kiss) from the first day I met

her," the horseman acknowledged. "The other Kantharos horses that I have have

grown a lot since they got to the track, mentally and physically."

Fawkes will look for more growth from Katie's Kiss on

Saturday, when the filly will be ridden for the first time by Jose Valdivia Jr.

"I expect a good performance out of her," he remarked. "It's a little quick

back, but I expect a big performance. She's a very nice filly, and she came out

of her race in great order. I expect her to run really well."

Katie's Kiss will face Holywell, from the Jose Pinchin

barn, in the Desert Vixen. Like Katie's Kiss, Holywell also needed two starts to

break her maiden. The daughter of Exclusive Quality followed up a third-place debut effort on June 14 with a one-length

win in a maiden special weight on June 28. She breezed five furlongs in 1:01 1/5

over the weekend at Gulfstream in preparation for the Desert Vixen, in which Jaen will

be in the irons.

"She worked really good Saturday, she worked excellent the

week before, and everything is good with her," Pinchin said. "I liked her a lot

when she won that day. She improved off her first race, and she's been doing

everything good, and I think she'll run a very good race. I think she has as

good a chance as any horse in the race."

Also entered in the Desert Vixen are Campbell homebreds Herecomesmisskitty, a

June 14 debut

winner at Calder, and I'm a Good Looker, a 9 1/4-length scorer on May 30 at

Calder; Standard Deal and Leap Year Luck, both bred and owned by Jacks or Better

Farm, a winner of 12 sire stakes races that has thrice swept the series; and Miss Amalita, third in

the Cassidy at Gulfstream on July 12.

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