Slam Dunk Racing’s Drain the Clock stayed undefeated Wednesday at Gulfstream Park West, scoring a length victory in the featured optional claiming allowance for 2-year-olds,
The Saffie Joseph Jr.-trained colt had to work a little harder to prevail over stablemate Worlds On High in the six-furlong sprint than he did in his Sept. 12 debut at Gulfstream Park, where he scored a front-running six-length victory.
Drain the Clock broke alertly but settled just off the early pace contested by Tiger and Worlds On High past fractions of 22.08 and 45.21 seconds for the first half-mile. The son of Maclean’s Music swung three-wide off the turn into the homestretch and mounted an extended stretch drive to overtake Worlds on High, who is trained by Joseph for Don and Rebecca Ming.
“He sat off there nicely and came under some pressure at the quarter-pole. I thought once he switched leads late by the three-eighths pole, he started going away,” Joseph said. “It was a workmanlike performance. Hopefully, he’ll continue to build on that.”
Drain the Clock ($4.20) ran six furlongs in 1:10.67. Samy Camacho picked up the mount from leading rider Edgard Zayas, whose wife gave birth to their second daughter Wednesday.
Drain the Clock is expected to run in a stakes next time out.
Joseph was also extremely pleased with the performance of Worlds On High, who had debuted with a victory in a Sept. 18 $50,000 maiden claiming race at Gulfstream.
“He’s a big trier. Today, he really ran big,” Joseph said. “I think World On High is a really nice horse also. He wasn’t far off today.”
Worlds On High, who was ridden by apprentice Alberto Burgos, finished 1 ¾ lengths clear of third-place finisher The Distractor.
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