One Year Later, Top Billing to Make Return
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Exactly a year to the day since his last start, 4-year-old Top Billing will make his return to the races Feb. 22 at Gulfstream Park, his first race since undergoing surgery to repair a fractured cannon bone in his right front leg.
W. S. Farish and E. J. Hudson's son of Curlin was a prime early contender on the 2014 Triple Crown trail before suffering the injury in a March workout. Trainer Shug McGaughey has entered the chestnut colt in Sunday's 10th race, a 1 1/16-mile allowance/optional claiming test for older horses.
Top Billing has not run since finishing third as the 2-1 favorite in last year's Besilu Stables Fountain of Youth (gr. II) at Gulfstream. The race was his stakes debut.
"He's doing well," the Hall of Fame conditioner said. "He's been training at Payson Park all winter. I've probably been up there every time he's breezed."
In his most recent drill at Payson, Top Billing breezed a half mile in :50 flat Feb. 14 in company with the maiden Hereditary. It was the fourth quickest of 23 works at the distance over the track.
Top Billing had two wins, a second, and a third in four races before going to the shelf.
Like his late-developing sire, the chestnut did not start until December of his 2-year-old season. He won his career debut, romping by 5 1/4 lengths over a sloppy track at Laurel Park in a six-furlong maiden special weight. In his first outing as a sophomore, the colt made his Gulfstream Park debut in an allowance and finished second by a neck to Commissioner, who would go on to finish second in the Belmont Stakes (gr. I).
Top Billing followed up that effort with a 2 1/4-length victory in another allowance at Gulfstream, putting him on target for the Fountain of Youth.
In the Fountain of Youth, Top Billing, breaking from the disadvantageous 12-post, was the only horse able to close on dueling front-runners Wildcat Red and General a Rod. The two pacesetters separated themselves from the field and finished one-two, a head apart, but Top Billing ended up just two lengths behind them.
Since returning to training last summer, Top Billing has breezed on both dirt and turf.
"He got ready to run and I backed off of him a little," McGaughey said. "I didn't breeze him the weekend before last. I breezed him back with (Hereditary) the other day, so it's a start back. It's been a year. He's been injured. We're tickled to have him back in, and we just hope we can get started and go from there."
McGaughey said that distance will not be a concern for Top Billing despite the long absence. In fact, he'd prefer the colt to go even longer.
"If I had my preferences, it'd be a 1 1/8-mile or farther, but I don't, so I'm just glad he's back in and back to the races, and I'm looking forward to Sunday," he said.
McGaughey also noted that Honor Code, who returned from an eight-month layoff to win an allowance at Aqueduct Racetrack Nov. 22, will run next in the one-mile Gulfstream Park Handicap (gr. II) March 7.
"He's doing good," McGaughey said of the 4-year-old son of A.P. Indy out of the Storm Cat mare Serena's Cat who is owned by Lane's End Racing and his breeder, Dell Ridge Farm. The 2013 Remsen (gr. II) winner has three wins and two seconds in five lifetime starts with earnings of $442,600.