GP Sprint: Speechify Tackles Weekend Hideaway

Team Valor International's Speechify, winner of his past two races, will make his 2015 debut against solid Florida Sunshine Millions Sprint winner Weekend Hideaway Feb. 21 in the $100,000 Gulfstream Park Sprint (gr. III) at Gulfstream Park.

Co-highweights at 119 pounds in a field of eight for the 6 1/2 furlong test (all others carry 117), the two have both impressed in their recent Gulfstream starts, with Weekend Hideaway rolling by four lengths in the Florida Sunshine Millions Sprint Jan. 17 and Speechify picking up his first graded score Dec. 27 in the Mr. Prospector Stakes (gr. III) by 1 1/4 lengths.

Weekend Hideaway, a New York-bred son of Speightstown  , is still seeking his first graded victory for trainer Phil Serpe and Red and Black Stable. The 5-year-old runner snapped a trio of sixth-place finishes with his last-out victory, having failed to hit the board in the Forego (gr. I), Hudson, and Fall Highweight Handicap (gr. III). Javier Castellano gets the mount from the outside post.

Speechify, a 5-year-old son of Harlan's Holiday, won the Nov. 16 Kenny Noe Jr. Stakes at Gulfstream Park West by 3 3/4 lengths and came back to make his first graded start a winning one Dec. 27 in the Mr. Prospector. Paco Lopez will ride from the 6 hole for trainer Ralph Nicks.

Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott has an interesting contender in Mean Season, a lightly raced 5-year-old son of Henny Hughes owned by Jake Ballis and Rashard Lewis who is undefeated in three starts. Unraced since a victory last March 1 by 7 1/2 lengths at Aqueduct Racetrack, the dazzling winner returns after rehabbing a stress fracture to his left front foreleg. He was vanned off following that impressive allowance score, his third in a row after taking a Dec. 22 six-furlong allowance by eight lengths in 2013 off his 4 3/4-length maiden win at first asking. Irad Ortiz, Jr., has the assignment from post 5 for the chestnut runner's fourth career outing.