Requite Returns at Winner at Gulfstream Park
Image:
Description:
Photo: Lauren King
Requite Wins Parrot Key Stakes at Gulfstream
The 4-year-old Warrior's Reward colt Requite, away since last August at Saratoga Race Course, returned a winner June 5 in the $75,000 Parrot Key Stakes at Gulfstream Park and could make his next start in the $250,000 Smile Sprint (gr. II).
The Smile Sprint at six furlongs will be held July 2 as part of the Florida track's Summit of Speed program. The stakes is a Breeders' Cup Sprint (gr. I) "Win and You're In" race.
Requite, owned by Limestone Thoroughbreds and trained by George Weaver, finished second in the Amsterdam Stakes (gr. II) in upstate New York in his final race of 2015. In the summer of 2014 he broke his maiden in his career debut, also at Saratoga.
Requite, bred in Kentucky by Limestone Thoroughbreds and Dr. Wilfred Robinson, won the six-furlong Parrot Key under Eddie Castro by 3 1/2 lengths in 1:09.18 on a track rated fast. He is headed to Saratoga but probably will return for the Summit of Speed.
"He came back great," Weaver told Gulfstream media officials after the June 4 stakes. "He broke sharp. I didn't know we were going to be on the lead, but when they posted the (:22.95 first quarter) and he was doing it that way, I thought I was the place to be. He opened up on them and got the job done. I thought he looked great off the layoff.
"We're going to ship (to Saratoga June 6) but we're going to keep an eye on the Summit of Speed race down here. We'll train him up there and bring him back down. He likes this track and if he's going well, we'll come back down. I think it would be a good idea."
Requite won back-to-back races at Gulfstream last year, including a victory in the Big Cypress Handicap on the Summit of Speed Preview Day program. He was on the shelf after the Amsterdam because he severed an artery in a front hoof in a stall accident.
"He's an exciting horse," Weaver said. "We were on the Breeders' Cup trail last year and unfortunately he injured his hoof. If (the Parrot Key) is an indication of what we're going to do this year, I'm excited."