El Padrino nearing his return in the main event at Gulfstream Park
Let's Go Stable’s 3-year-old El Padrino’s sophomore season started on a high, when he went on to become a grade 2 winner, and after a 7 ½ month hiatus, trainer Todd Pletcher is brining the son of Pulpit back to make his comeback race against older horses under allowance optional claiming conditions, which will be run over a distance of 1 mile at Gulfstream Park on 19 December, 2012.
El Padrino before treading on the prep races, made his 3-year-old debut at Gulfstream Park in an allowance optional claimer, and went 1 1/16 miles on 29 January, 2012, and was successful in defeating Take Charge Indy in second with the winning time of 1 minute and 42.68 seconds.
In that race, El Padrino poster a Beyer Speed Figure of 100, which helped him transfer that sharp run in his next start, and the most important one in terms of his Kentucky Derby prospects.
Bred in Kentucky by Emory A. Hamilton, El Padrino won the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds Race Course, and defeated Mark Valeski. The allowance optional claimer served as a good prep race, as El Padrino took 1 minute and 42.96 seconds to complete the Risen Star 1 1/16 miles.
In his next start, El Padrino finished fourth to winner, Take Charge Indy, in the Grade 1 Florida Derby, and then finishes way back in the Kentucky Derby in 13th to winner, I’ll Have Another.
El Padrino had a prolonged vacation after that, and didn’t feature in any race.
“After the Derby, he just needed some time to regroup, and we decided if we were going to focus on a 4-year-old campaign, we needed to give him a meaningful break,” Pletcher said. “And if we are possibly looking to target a race like the Donn this winter, we needed to get a race under his belt now to see where he is. So here we are.”
However, El Padrino has trained well for his comeback race, and not once, he has been under the worktab with the session consisting of six workouts, and all six of them came at Palm Meadows training center. The fastest work was when he turned in five eighths in 1 minute and 0.60 seconds on 13 December.
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