BY BROCK SHERIDAN
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL—Florida-bred Seminole Chief became the third Florida-bred stakes winner on the Gulfstream turf Saturday with an impressive victory in the $158,000 Appleton at Gulfstream Park.
Earlier on the Florida Derby card, Florida-breds Classic of Course and Spirited Boss won $158,000 Cutler Bay and $158,000 Sanibel Island respectively, both at seven-and-a-half furlongs on the grass. Seminole Chief, by Girvin; and Classic of Course, by Awesome of Course, are both graduates of the lucrative FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes program.
Seminole Chief and jockey Dylan Davis pressed front-running Portofino throughout the one-mile Appleton before wearing down his rival to win by a three-quarters of a length in 1:33.91, but trainer Jack Sisterson said he was perhaps a bit too eager early this morning at his base at Palm Meadows Training Center.
“We get up at 3:00 o’clock and we had to put a saddle on him and train him this morning,” Sisterson said of Seminole Chief. “If people knew how much some of these horses like their job. This morning he wanted to train as well as run. So I said ‘don’t put him on the van, put a saddle on him.’ I was just worried about how well he was feeling this morning. We had to take the edge off a little. He wanted to do it, so we allowed him to do it.”
After he was allowed a one mile jog this morning, Seminole Chief repaid Sisterson with the impressive Appleton score.
Seminole Chief and jockey Dylan Davis stalked front-running Portofino early after even-money favorite Major Dude got off slow after being bumped hard at the start. Seminole Chief raced just to the outside of Portofino through a half-mile in :47.20 and six furlongs in 1:10.80 before challenging in the stretch. Portofino kept a short advantage in the run for home before Seminole Chief took over in the final sixteenth of a mile. Portofino held on to finish by a nose ahead of Abrumar in third. Major Dude, Fly the W, Skyro, Florida-bred Brawn, Ice Chocolat (Brz), Axthelm, Doctor Jeff and Ruse completed the order of finish.
Seminole Chief finished the mile on the firm turf in 1:33.91 and paid $9.40 to win.
It was the second consecutive win on the turf for Seminole Chief, who won a second condition, $62,500 optional claiming going a mile-and-a-sixteenth on the turf at Gulfstream on March 1. It was his first stakes victory since taking the 2023 In Reality division of the FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes.
Sisterson said he will likely point Seminole Chief toward the $350,000 Opening Verse, a one-mile turf test at Churchill Downs on May 1.
“I wouldn’t be against putting him back on the dirt. As a 2-year-old he ran well on the dirt. I think he’s just a good horse,” Sisterson said. “Moving forward, we might look at a race like the Opening Verse. I don’t think it makes sense to try to stretch him out in the [nine furlong] Turf Classic. I think he can make the mile.”
Seminole Chief now has won five of nine starts with a third while earning $419,825 for owners Brad Grady and David Grund. He was purchased by HND Bloodstock for $80,000 out of the Bobby Dodd consignment at the 2023 Ocala Breeders’ Sales June Sale.
(Seminole Chief’s Under Tack Video / Walking Video)
Seminole Chief is out of Secret Song, by Dunkirk and was bred in Florida by Brad and Misty Grady. Secret Song has four winners from six starters with Seminole Chief her only stakes winner. She also has a weanling full brother to Seminole Chief.
Seminole Chief is the 17th Florida-bred winner of the Appleton and first since Reporting Star in 2016.
Return to the March 29 issue of Wire to Wire
