Conquest Big E well prepped

Donna Green thought she’d give her stable star Conquest Big E a chance to show what he could do on turf last month at Gulfstream Park. Turns out, the 5-year-old gelding didn’t do much running, but the effort may have served a very useful purpose for what lies ahead.

Conquest Big E will be among the top contenders when going turf to dirt in the Mo Exception, one of two $75,000 overnight stakes on an exceptionally good Friday card at the south Florida track.

“I wanted to keep an open mind about what he could do on the grass,” said Green. “He didn’t run very well, but the turf is usually good for getting a great tightener into your horse.”

Conquest Big E, with Jose Batista to ride, will face six other 3-year-olds and up in the one-mile Mo Exception when he looks to return to the form that earned him a pair of 100 Beyer Speed Figures earlier this year. One of those came in a smashing triumph in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile over 2017 Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming in March.

“I breezed the horse since the last race, and he went really well,” said Green, whose husband, Danny Hurtak, owns Conquest Big E. “I’m pretty confident in him on Friday.”

Green noted that Deland (post 7, Emisael Jaramillo) is “very much the horse to beat” after earning a career-high 94 Beyer in winning the Coast Is Clear in his last start July 22 for trainer Victor Barboza Jr. “I’ve seen him in his training, and he’s doing very well, too,” she said.

Another possibility in the Mo Exception is Leitone, a Group 1 winner in his native Chile whose U.S. debut four weeks ago for Kathy Ritvo resulted in a respectable runner-up finish behind Gunnevera, who subsequently was second in the Grade 1 Woodward at Saratoga.

First post Friday is 2 p.m. Eastern, with the Mo Exception going at 5:32 as the eighth of nine races. Some 90 minutes earlier, the $75,000 The Vid Stakes (race 5, 4:02) will have Conquest Sandman as the likely favorite when the 5-yearold Ontario-bred gelding faces some of the better middledistance turf horses on the local circuit. Jaramillo has the mount for trainer Juan Carlos Abarrio.

Gulfstream officials said the void on the national simulcast calendar created by the recent closings of the Saratoga and Del Mar meets provided an opportunity to offer such strong racing for a Friday.

O’Connell close to milestone

Kathleen O’Connell is on the threshold of becoming just the second female trainer in North American racing history to win 2,000 races.

O’Connell, a trainer since 1981, started the week with 1,998 wins and nearly $37 million in stable earnings. Only Kim Hammond, based primarily in Indiana and Kentucky, has more wins (2,208), while New York-based Linda Rice, who has 1,786 wins, leads all female trainers in stable earnings ($70.2 million).

O’Connell had one scheduled entry for Thursday, then multiple entries in two races Saturday, most notably her latest standout, Stormy Embrace, in the $100,000 Sheer Drama.

DQ appeal is denied

An appeal to overturn the disqualification of Majestic Secret from second to fifth in the seventh race Aug. 22 was denied after co-owner George Klein met last Friday at Gulfstream with Jeff Noe, a senior administrative hearing officer.

The disqualification of Majestic Secret from the $43,320 race was the second for interference in the last four starts for the 3-year-old colt.