Arindel Sweeps Gulfstream's Two Juvenile Races

History suggested that if anyone was to sweep the two 4 1/2-furlong maiden races for juveniles this week at Gulfstream Park, it would be trainer Wesley Ward, who won seven of 10 such dashes last spring at Keeneland.

Instead, it was the Ocala, Fla., breed-to-race farm of Arindel that pulled the feat, with Quinoa Tifah winning the first 2-year-old race April 16 for fillies, followed by a victory from Gatsby in an open race April 17. The winners were prepared by Arindel farm trainer Juan Alvarado.

Both times the two Arindel charges ceded the lead to the favored Ward trainees before reeling them in. Quinoa Tifah ran down Lime to stop the clock in :52.13, and Gatsby inched away from Golden Pal to cover the same distance in :52.36. 

Another Arindel runner, Pretzel, ran a distant third behind Quinoa Tifah.

"We just keep trying to improve every year, just little things," Arindel president Brian Cohen said. "Last year, our babies were coming down for their first races on the day of the race after five hours shipping from Ocala. This year, we got them down for a couple weeks, got them a couple works over the track. 

"We were pretty confident in these two. Gatsby had been doing things that we hadn't seen on the farm. He was just so precocious and was meant for these 4 1/2-furlong races."

Cohen credited his entire staff for the victories. He said his father, Arindel owner Alan Cohen, plans the pedigrees, and after Alvarado preps them at their farm, the horses go to Gulfstream to be overseen by Heather Smullen, a longtime exercise rider for trainer Barclay Tagg.

"We run under Juan Alvarado, but if we could run under Arindel, we would do that," Cohen said. "It's really a team effort."

Gatsby is by Arindel's stallion, Brethren , who stands for $7,500, and is the first foal from the Aldebaran mare Star Recruit, an eight-time winner. He is eligible for the Florida Sire Stakes this summer and fall at Gulfstream Park.

Bailey, excluded from Friday's race when he was unable to draw into the field from the also-eligible list, is another Brethren colt the farm regards highly.

Quinoa Tifah, a play on the name of singer and actress Queen Latifah, is the third winner out of the Storm Cat mare Atrea. Though Quinoa Tifah is a Florida-bred, she is ineligible for the Florida Sire Stakes program because she is by Gemologist , who originally stood at WinStar Farm in Kentucky before relocating to Acadiana Equine at Copper Crowne in Louisiana in 2019.

Though Arindel had its first sales consignment this year, it remains largely a breed-to-race program. It has 40-50 juveniles and more than 60 mares, mostly in Florida.

"A lot of our horses run early, but we're not pushing them or cracking them up to breeze real fast eighths to be sold," Cohen said. "We're letting them do what they are capable of."

This is not the only venture into sports from Arindel's Alan Cohen, who in 2001 led a group that purchased the Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League before selling the organization in 2009.

Cohen has been involved in horse racing since 2003, with Arindel's Wait a While, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2006. Arindel had a record year in 2018 with nearly $2.5 million in earnings from 42 victories and came close to that in 2019 with $2.1 million from 44 winners.

One of its best active horses is Cookie Dough, the winner of the Feb. 15 Royal Delta Stakes (G3) at Gulfstream. Also by Brethren, the 4-year-old filly is slated to run in the April 18 Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) at Oaklawn Park for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr.

She is one of several interestingly named Arindel runners, a group that includes Filly Joel, Filly Jean King, and Pancake.

"We have a lot of fun," Brian Cohen said of the operation. "And winning is even better."