Grade I Winner Lochte Targets Tropical Turf

In what will be his 12th start of the season, grade I winner Lochte will try to nail down his third stakes win of 2014 when he faces an expected eight rivals in the $100,000 Tropical Turf Handicap (gr. IIIT) Nov. 22 at Gulfstream Park West.

Crossed Sabres Farm's Lochte scored an upset victory this February when the 4-year-old Medaglia d'Oro   gelding rallied along the rail under regular rider Orlando Bocachica in the Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap (gr. IT). Since that effort, Lochte has registered two more grade I placings and two starts ago scored a half-length victory over Dreams Cut Short in The Vid Stakes at Gulfstream Park.



"From the beginning, I've always had my ups and downs with him," said trainer Marcus Vitali. "He's had his share of problems, like any athlete. Now, we've got him well managed and he's been on the upswing. We're going to take it one race and a time and hopefully point him in the right direction."

Rollin Fishback and Charles Logsdon's Dreams Cut Short, who also will start in the Tropical Turf, turned the tables on Lochte when he scored a 1 1/4-length victory in an Oct. 12 allowance race on the turf at Gulfstream Park West. The 5-year-old Belong to Me gelding will try to secure his first stakes win in Saturday's 1 1/8-mile turf event for 3-year-olds and older.

The field also will include a New York-bred heading south for the approaching winter—consistent grade III winner Lubash, who has seven stakes victories and 12 additional stakes placings in five seasons of racing. A 7-year-old son of Freud   who earned all but one of those 19 stakes placings in New York, Lubash has finished first or second in six straight races.

The field is expected to be nine if the race stays on turf and Gulfstream Park West also saw four horses entered under main-track-only conditions. Should the race be moved to the main track, Crossed Sabres Farm also is covered among that group with Valid, a winner of three of his past four starts who enters off an Oct. 11 stakes win at Gulfstream Park West.