A Grade 3-placed runner, RUNHAPPY’s Run Classic registered his first stakes victory on Saturday with a win in the Gulfstream Park Sprint Stakes.
The six-furlong dirt dash saw Run Classic break from the inside post before settling back into the rear of the field with just two horses beat. It wasn’t until the turn that the RUNHAPPY son started his run and he turned into the stretch just a length behind the leaders.
Racing widest of all, Run Classic showed a strong turn of foot to win by 3 1/4 lengths.
This was the 2024 debut for the 6-year-old, who is now the winner of five of 12 starts with three other top three finishes for $405,767 in earnings.
Trained by Jose Francisco D’Angelo for Tom Durant, Run Classic was a $475,000 2-year-old purchase by his racing owner at OBS March in 2020.
The horse is out of the stakes-placed Pledge Pin, a half-sister to stakes winner and multiple graded stakes placed Great Mills as one of five winners from five to race out of Oriental Glitter. The family also includes Brazilian and Canadian champion Jolie Olimpica and Grade 2 winner Domenica among others.
Pledge Pin has a WAR OF WILL juvenile filly, who brought $140,000 as a weanling, and returned to that stallion for 2024.