EASY BREEZY

By TAMMY A. GANTT

In its nearly 40 year history, 13 horses have swept the Florida Sire Stakes. The question remains will one of the leading owners and breeders in the series, Gil Campbell and his wife Marilyn’s Stonehedge LLC, add a male sweep to their list of accomplishments in the series with Breeze On By. Gil Campbell’s first sweep was with filly Scandalous Act in 2013.

The Campbells have felt the joy of winning two legs, but also the loss with near sweeps on a trio of occasions starting in 1996 with Blazing Sword. The horse won the Dr. Fager and then the Affirmed but not the In Reality. Racing as a homebred of Gil Campbell’s in 2002, Ivanavinalot won the last two legs in the series, and now has an FSS race named in her honor at Tampa Bay Downs.

In 2013 when Scandalous Act was in the process of her sweep, it almost appeared it would be a double sweep, a feat never done before. History was denied as the homebred My Brown Eyed Guy was upset by Best Plan Yet in the In Reality. Since then Stonehedge has lined up wins in the series with Well Defined in 2018 and Liam’s Lucky Charm and Lenzi’s Lucky Lady in 2019.

On Aug. 29, Breeze On By led a superfecta of

horses for Stonehedge at Gulfstream Park with a dominating seven-and-a-half length victory in the $200,000 Affirmed, the second leg of the FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes, for juveniles sired by FTBOA registered Florida stallions, making him the odds-on favorite to beat in the finals on Sept. 26.

Quickly moving up the Florida Sire Stakes top trainer list, Ralph Nicks also capped a personal milestone with the race winning his fourth consecutive

Superfecta Sire Stakes for Stonehedge

running of the Affirmed when he saddled Breeze On By. The son of Cajun Breeze out of Miss Primetime by Fusaichi Pegasus also gave Nicks his eighth Florida Sire Stakes success since 2016 while providing Gil Campbell and Stonehedge Farm a combined total 16th victory in the tradition-rich series. Campbell has bred and raced horses in the series under his name and under Stonehedge.

The team won the $100,000 Dr. Fager, the first leg of the Florida Sire Stakes on Aug. 1. That day Breeze On By also provided Nicks with another milestone, his 600th victory and eighth FSS win. Cajun Breeze has also produced 2018 FSS Dr. Fager Stakes winner Cajun Firecracker out of Clara Bow by Way West (FR) for owner Michael Yates and RYAN THOMPSON PHOTO

Easy Breezy

breeder Shadybrook Farm. Cajun Breeze began his stud career at Stonehedge Farm in Williston, Fla in 2015. The son of Congrats out of Cajun Dawn, by Awesome Again, Cajun Breeze has a half-sister Cajun Delta Dawn by Kantharos. She won the 2016 FSS Susan’s Girl for local breeders Curt Mikkelsen and Patricia Horth.

“I just feel blessed to be in Florida for seven years and win this many [Sire] Series,” said Nicks, who also captured the Affirmed the previous three seasons with Soutache (2017), Garter and Tie (2018) and Liam’s Lucky Charm (2019). “I learned early on that you need to be a part of this and was lucky to have owners send me some talented horses and it’s worked.”

The Nicks-trained Big Daddy Dave and Seazan finished second and third, respectively, while the Kathleen O’Connelltrained Top Boss finished fourth to round out the Stonehedge superfecta.

O’Connell is the one to aspire to for Nicks in the twoyear-old series. She has 12 wins followed by Eddie Plesa, Jr. and Emanuel Tortora with 11 wins, just below Frank Gomez with 14. The leading trainer by far in the series is Stanley Gold with 20 wins who hit his stride in 2009 and has won at least one race annually, with rare exception, since then.

The Aug. 29 win put Nicks in with the likes of O’Connell and Gold as FSS powerhouses. O’Connell won five out of six in the series in 2013 for Gil and Marilyn Campbell. Her first win in the series was in 1996. Gold dominated the series in 2009 to 2011 and again in 2014, winning 16 of 24 races between 2009 and 2014.

In the Affirmed, Breeze On By, the 4-5 favorite ridden by Emisael Jaramillo, broke alertly from the starting gate but was beaten for the early lead by Gatsby, the 5-2 second choice. Gatsby showed the way down the backstretch under an urging ride by Hector Berrios. Breeze On By pressed the pace setting fractions of :22.14 and :44.22 for the first half mile before putting away the tiring pacesetter on the turn into the homestretch and drew away to a more than comfortable victory.

Breeze On By, undefeated in three starts, ran the seven furlongs in 1:22.75. Big Daddy Dave made a wide bid of the final turn and finished second, two-and-a-half lengths ahead of a late-rallying Seazan.

In the Dr. Fager, Breeze On By was tested by Gatsby who made a menacing outside challenge leaving the turn into the homestretch. The second-place finisher managed to put his head in front in mid-stretch, but Breeze On By fought back gamely to win by a length.

“It was a big race,” Nicks said. “He got tested. You never know what kind of grit they’re going to show until they’re put in that position. [Gatsby] got the jump on us and he fought back. That was impressive.” “They’re nice horses. Thank you to Stonehedge RYAN THOMPSON PHOTO for sending us some great horses. We’re lucky to work with such talented horses,” Nicks said. “Breeze On By

was able to rate and sit there with Big Daddy Dave in the hunt and could have pushed if he needed to, but he will settle and follow if he needs to.”

Breeze On By is scheduled to make his bid to sweep the Florida Sire Stakes in the $400,000 In Reality, the mile-and-a-sixteenth series finale on Sept. 26. With a victory he would join a long list of horses including Three Rules (2016), Scandalous Act (2013), Fort Loudon (2011), Awesome Feather (2010), Jackson Bend (2009), Big Drama (2008), Aclassysassylassy (2004), Sir Oscar (2003), Express Tour (2000), Nancy’s Glitter (1997), Seacliff (1995), Naked Greed (1991) and Smile (1984).

“Doing this series is tough on them and we’ll see. There are two other horses in this race that ran well so nothing will be a gift, but it’s nice to have a horse this talented and have those options in front of you,” said Nicks.

“Mr. Campbell has been one of the big breeders in Florida for a long time. He’s put a lot of money and effort into it,” Nicks said. “He deserves it.”

The Affirmed Stakes was named for the sole Triple Crown champion from Florida, Affirmed, who won in 1978. Named the 1977 two-year-old and 1978 threeyear-old champion colt, he was also 1979 Older Male of the Year and Horse of the Year in 1977, 1978, and 1979. His owner and breeder was Harbor View Farm, owned by Louis Wolfson, a financier that Time magazine in 1956 labeled the first modern corporate raider. He was a self-made millionaire before he was 29 years old. ■

Breeze On By easily takes the FSS Affirmed Stakes