Bullet Gone Astray Fires at Seven Furlongs

On Wednesday, trainer Henry Collazo told us that seven furlongs on dirt might be the best distance for his three-year-old colt Bullet Gone Astray. 

One day later, Bullet Gone Astray lived up to Collazo’s expectations with an impressive win in a seven-furlong allowance at Gulfstream Park.

Bullet Gone Astray rallied from fifth place entering the turn and went on to beat Looks Good by 1 ½ lengths in Thursday’s eighth and feature race for three-year-olds and up.

Dream of Me crossed the finish line third, one length behind Looks Good. Li’l Meatball came in fourth, by a neck.

However, the stewards conducted an inquiry and 

concluded that Looks Good interfered with Dream of Me and with Li’l Meatball in deep stretch.

They changed the order of finish, moving Dream of Me up to second and Li’l Meatball to third. Looks Good was moved down to fourth.

Bullet Gone Astray was outside the bumping and expanding his lead at the finish.

The son of Gone Astray won in 1:23.80 on the track listed as fast, under jockey Marcos Meneses.

(Note—in a blog post on Thursday, we correctly predicted the pre-DQ order of finish)

Bullet Gone Astray earned his best-ever Equibase speed figure of 100.  His previous best was 96, when he finished third in the seven-furlong Carry Back (Grade 3) at Gulfstream on July 2.

Bullet Gone Astray was 33-1 in the Carry Back’s seven-horse field, due largely to the presence of multiple graded-stakes placed Rated R Superstar and multiple graded stakes winner Awesome Banner.

Rated R Superstar rallied to beat Awesome Banner by three-quarters of a length. Bullet Gone Astray came in six lengths behind Awesome Banner and 7 ¼ lengths ahead of fourth place finisher Dream of Me.

In Thursday’s race, Bullet Gone Astray was the 3-1 second choice behind 6-5 favorite Looks Good and 2-1 Phish Fan who came in third in the six-horse field.

Bullet Gone Astray’s maternal grand sire is Red Bullet, the winner of the 2000 Preakness Stakes.

The win on Friday was Bullet Gone Astray’s third in 15 starts. He also has a second place finish and four third place finishes.  Twelve of his races have been stakes, including two on turf.

Four Horsemen Racing Stable and Lady Lindsay Racing Stables own Bullet Gone Astray.

Collazo on Friday added a win as a trainer, owner and breeder with Won Eye Jet  in Gulfstream’s tenth race.

Won Eye Jet beat Herr Drosselmeyer by a neck at 5 ½ furlongs in the $25,000 claiming race for 2-year-olds. It was the fourth start for Won Eye Jet, a two-year-old colt.

Collazo also trains the 2-year-old colt Sweetontheladies for Four Horsemen and Lady Lindsay.

That horse won in his debut—a five-furlong maiden special weight race at Gulfstream on July 2.

Collazo said he is considering Sweetontheladies for the $200,000 Dr. Fager at Gulfstream on Aug. 6.  The six-furlong race is the first leg in the male division of the Florida Sires Stakes series.

--Jim Freer