Taylor S, Power Alert star in Gulfstream sprint stakes

Grade 2-placed Taylor S (Medaglia d'Oro) cuts back in distance and

competition for her next start in the $75,000

Any Limit

S. on Saturday at

Gulfstream Park.

The six-furlong Any Limit for three-year-old fillies is one of

two stakes on the 12-race program, along with the $75,000

Silks Run

S. for older

sprinters going five furlongs on the grass.

Trained by Dale Romans, Taylor S opened her sophomore season running third in the

seven-furlong Forward Gal S. (G2) on January 24 at Gulfstream. The dark bay miss was only

a neck behind second in that contest while a neck up on fourth-placer Ekati's Phaeton

(Tale of Ekati), who came back to take the Davona Dale S. (G2) on February 21 at Gulfstream.

"Her last race was a big race," Romans said. "She was coming off a big race

at the end of the year where she ran such a big number and she came back and

held strong for third. The filly that she held off came back and ran big. This

will be a little bit of class relief for her. We'll try to get her a win and

move on to Kentucky."

Taylor S took her maiden debut at Churchill Downs last September and also

boasts a third under the Twin Spires in the Rags to Riches S. in October.

"She's really, really talented," Romans added. "She's such a big, strong

filly and she's just now getting it all together. I don't know how far she'll

go, but she's fast. We're going to sprint her now and then we'll worry about it

later. I'm hoping we can get her to stretch out to at least a mile. This will be

a good spot for her. She should win this one."

Standing in Taylor S's way is a pair of undefeated but untested

fillies in Dogwood Trail (Awesome of Course) and Perchance (Distorted Humor), as

well as stakes scorers Coco's Wildcat (Wildcat Heir) and Unhindered (Stormy

Atlantic).

Later on Gulfstream's card, Bold Thunder (Bold n' Flashy) will attempt to

defend his title in the Silks Run after finishing third behind the re-opposing

Amelia's Wild Ride (D'wildcat) on February 7 in the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint.

Prior to that the dark bay was an easy front-running scorer of the Turf Dash S.

to kick off his five-year-old campaign while Amelia's Wild Ride was second, but

placed seventh via disqualification, against allowance foes in late December.

After impressing in his stateside debut,

Power Alert (Alert) will make his first North American stakes start in the Silks Run.

The gelding struggled with bleeding during his races in Australia, prompting a

change in venue.

"If you bleed once in Australia, you're ruled off for 30 days, and if you

bleed a second time, you get barred for life," trainer Brian Lynch explained.

"So he bled once and got ruled off for 30 days, and rather than have him barred

for life, they thought it'd be better to take the opportunity to get him over

here (in the United States) and get him on some Lasix and see if that didn't

help him."

The continental shift seems to have worked as Power Alert pulled clear on

December 21 over the course against allowance rivals.

"He's a very fast horse, a very fast horse," Lynch said. "He's an easy horse

to train. He's got no quirkiness to him. He's just pretty straightforward."

Lynch hopes the Silks Run will set his trainee up well for

a multi-state summer stakes campaign.

"I just thought, after the way he ran the first time, we'd give him a little

time before we ran him back," the horseman detailed. "From here, he'll go

straight to the ($125,000) Shakertown (G3) at Keeneland (on April 4), so,

timing-wise, this race will set him up a little bit better for a summer

campaign. Then he's got a race on (Oaks) Day (in the $150,000 Twin Spires Turf

Sprint [G3] on May), and then he's going to race on Belmont Day (in the $300,000

Jaipur Invitational [G3] on June 6) in a perfect world."

Also entered in the Silks Run are Prudhoe Bay (Songandaprayer), hero of the

Jersey Shore S. (G3) last August, and stakes winners Yes I'm Lucky (Yes It's

True) and Stormy Rush (Stormy Atlantic).

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