Doctor J Dub Breakthrough Horse for Antonucci

Doctor J Dub had already raced 19 times with four wins, all in South Florida, by the time he joined trainer Jena Antonucci's string at Gulfstream Park in May.

As the 6-year-old gelding began to get comfortable in his new surroundings, he found himself becoming the barn favorite. The former claiming horse has been entered in the Dec. 3 Claiming Crown Canterbury at Gulstream Park.

"Since we got him, he's a completely different horse. It's hard to even explain really. He was kind of shut off and stayed in the back of his stall and a kept a little bit more to himself," Antonucci said. "Now he's out in front of his stall and he's got a lot of sass and personality and he knows he's king of the barn. We definitely tell him how special he is all the time. He's just a cool dude. He's got a swagger about him."

            

Doctor J Dub had only run once in a stakes race before being sent to Antonucci by owner Drawing Away Stable after he went winless in seven starts for Maria Borell, who claimed him away for $16,000 on New Year's Day. The son of Sharp Humor began his racing career with trainer Carlo Vaccarezza when owned by Vaccarezz's wife Priscilla and J and J Stables.

In his debut for Antonucci, Doctor J Dub ran fourth in the Bonita Stakes June 4 and four weeks later captured the Bob Umphrey Turf Sprint. Antonucci then brought him to Saratoga Race Course, where he hit the board twice in three optional claiming allowance starts at the prestigious summer meet.

From there, Antonucci pointed Doctor J Dub to the Turf Monster Stakes (gr. IIIT) Sept. 5 at Parx Racing, where he sprang a front-running, half-length upset at odds of nearly 24-1 defeating such multiple stakes winners as Power Alert, Two Notch Road, and Bold Thunder.

It was the first graded stakes triumph for Antonucci, who has won 90 races since 2010.

"It's kind of hard to really put into words, to be honest. It's pretty cool to watch a horse come into your program and watch him change in front of your eyes and buy into the program and buy into you as a person and trust and believe in you," she said. "He's always been kind of speed-favoring anyway, and to just to see him dig and fight that little extra more you like to feel like it was because of the scene around him and him being a truly happy horse that he's flourishing."

Doctor J Dub earned a two-month break between races before returning to run third in a five-furlong turf sprint Nov. 6 at Gulfstream Park West, his prep for Saturday's $110,000 Claiming Crown Canterbury.

"We think he's tight enough. I don't really have anything where I can tell you I wish we were doing this or that. We're pretty happy with where he is," Antonucci said. "I don't expect him to be the big favorite. I think people will look down on his last race a little bit, but that's fine. The odds board is not going to matter to him. He'll run his race and hopefully he's good enough on Saturday."