Mighty Brown to challenge Wildcat Red in Hutcheson

Hallandale Beach, FL (SportsNetwork.com) – Wildcat Red will have the home track advantage over Mighty Brown in Saturday’s $200,000 Hutcheson Stakes at Gulfstream Park. Ten 3-year-olds have been entered in the seven-furlong test.

Wildcat Red, trained by Jose Garoffalo, will be making his fifth consecutive start at Gulfstream while Mighty Brown heads to South Florida for the first time.

Owned by Honors Stable, Wildcat Red will start from post 5 with Eclipse Award- winning jockey Javier Castellano aboard the colt for the first time.

The Hutcheson will be Wildcat Red’s first start since finishing second to General a Rod in the Gulfstream Park Derby on Jan. 1. The colt was held out of last week’s Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream with an illness.

“I’m running in this race because we had to skip the last one,” Garoffalo said. “That’s the option we have. The horse ran a month ago, so he needs the race. I’m still thinking to take the horse around two turns. I’m going to use this race to keep the horse in shape and make sure the horse is ready to go longer, and it’s a good race. He fits pretty good, and the distance is an intermediate distance so we can go longer with him.”

Wildcat Red has earned $100,850 with two wins and two seconds in four starts.

Mighty Brown, owned by Tri-Star Racing and The Farm on 4, has drawn post 3 with Alan Garcia getting his first ride on the colt. Trained by Tim Ice, the chestnut 3-year-old has already won at seven furlongs, four weeks ago at Tampa Bay Downs.

“I’ve thought he was a very talented colt from Day 1, and I think cutting him back in distance has helped him a lot. I thought he would be a perfect seven- furlong horse and it worked out well today,” Ice observed after winning Tampa’s Pasco Stakes.

Mighty Brown, a son of 2008 champion 3-year-old Big Brown, is coming off a fifth on Jan. 21 in the six-furlong Ocala Breeders’ Sales Sprint. The colt has earned $130,090 with two wins in 10 starts.

Here is the field for the Hutcheson from the rail out: Spot, Jilver Chamafi; Pablo Del Monte, Paco Lopez; Mighty Brown, Alan Garcia; C. Zee, Edgard Zayas; Wildcat Red, Javier Castellano; Gambler’s Ghost, Corey Lanerie; Long On Value, John Velazquez; Trail Blaze, Joel Rosario; Tashir, Juan Leyva and Vinceremos, Edgar Prado.

The Hutcheson has an approximate post-time of 5:03 p.m. (ET).

Categorized in: Horses