It was a second straight victory for FIRST SAMURAI’s stakes winning XY Speed on Saturday when the evergreen runner raced to victory in a Gulfstream Park Handicap.
Trained by Michael Lerman for Clear Stars Stable, the 8-year-old broke from the second widest gate in the 5 ½ furlong turf race and spent the early half of the run as one of the back markers. Guided widest of all into the stretch by jockey Edwin Gonzalez, he waited until the final furlong to make a serious move.
The closing strides saw him show off his big turn of foot to not only collar the leader near the wire but pull away by a length in the end.
The Monticule-bred has been as good as ever in 2024 with two wins and two other top three finishes in four starts to have earnings just below the $100,000 marker at $98,970.
In his seven seasons of racing, XY Speed has won 12 of his 36 starts with nine other top three finishes for $422,116 in earnings. Among his victories is a win in the 2021 Laurel Dash Stakes.
XY Speed is one of 23 winners in 2024 for FIRST SAMURAI to put him at 32.86% winners. That percentage of winners to runners puts him higher than all but three of the top 20 top Northern Hemisphere sires this season.