Speechify Seeks Third Straight

Team Valor International’s Speechify (Harlan’s Holiday) looks for his third-consecutive stakes score in today’s GIII Gulfstream Park Sprint S. The Ralph Nicks pupil annexed Gulfstream Park West’s Kenny Noe, Jr. S. Nov. 16, and doubled up last time in the local GIII Mr. Prospector S. Dec. 27. “He’s good. I’m sure the water will be a little deeper this time, but he’s doing well,” offered Nicks of the lightly raced 5-year-old, who suffered from an airway issue as a young horse that nearly cost him his life twice. “It shows what a good horse can overcome,” Nicks said. “Only the good ones survive and can handle that.” Rashard Lewis and Jake Ballis’s freakishly fast J “TDN Rising Star” J Mean Season (Henny Hughes) makes just his fourth career start at age five. Purchased for $150,000 as a horse of racing age at the 2013 Keeneland November sale off a debut win for Ginger Punch Racing and Jose Corrales, the chestnut was turned over to Bill Mott to take an Aqueduct optional claimer by eight lengths with a 105 Beyer Speed Figure that December. He turned in a nearly identical effort back in Ozone Park last March, but was sidelined after suffering a stress fracture to his left foreleg. Three runners exit the Florida Sunshine Millions Sprint S.: winner Weekend Hideaway (Speightstown), third finisher Happy My Way (Wilko) and fifth-place Puntrooskie (In Summation).