Classic Of Course lands rail draw for Smile Sprint at Gulfstream Park

Classic Of Course landed post position 1 for Saturday’s $100,000 Smile Sprint at Gulfstream Park, and that draw may be the biggest reason the 4-year-old gelding was installed as the 3-1 second choice behind Rolando. The six-furlong dirt stakes is part of Gulfstream’s Fourth of July program and co-headlines the card with the $100,000 Soldier’s Dancer Handicap on turf, with Equibase listing the race for 3-year-olds and up and older horses carrying 126 pounds.

Trainer Patrick Biancone is not treating the rail as a trap. He said Classic Of Course “repeats every time the same race,” and added that the gelding likes running inside horses, a profile that makes the one hole look more like an assignment than a concern. For a horse who has already bankrolled more than $400,000 in 18 Gulfstream starts, including four wins, four seconds and three thirds, the draw gives him a chance to save ground and stay in the pocket instead of being forced into the kind of wide trip that can erase a sprint’s margin in a hurry.

That matters because Classic Of Course already showed in the June 6 Big Drama Handicap that he can overcome trouble and still make a race of it. He was shuffled back early, then swung extremely wide into the stretch and still finished fourth, beaten only a nose, a neck and three-quarters of a length by Rolando in a seven-horse field. Gulfstream’s recap of that race listed opening fractions of 22.49 and 1:09.67 for six furlongs, with Rolando stopping the clock in 1:22.85 for the seven furlongs and paying $9.60 to win. The next start now looks less like a test of raw class and more like a test of whether the right trip can sharpen a familiar runner into a winner.

Keith Asmussen is named to ride Classic Of Course for the first time, another wrinkle in a race where position and timing may matter as much as form. Con Compania also enters off a recent win, a 6 1/2-furlong allowance score at Gulfstream on May 23, but the rail has changed the conversation around Classic Of Course. In a sprint like this, the difference between a clean inside stalking trip and getting pinched early can decide whether a solid stakes horse stays on the board or finally breaks through.