The season has changed from fall to spring but trainer Mickey Goldfine is hoping that Come On Flip proves to be a horse for all seasons.
Last fall, Come On Flip came on strong in the stretch to score an upset victory in the Grade II Hawthorne Gold Cup, final graded stakes race of the 1996 Chicago thoroughbred season.
Saturday afternoon, Sportsman’s Park will present the first graded stakes race of the 1997 Chicago thoroughbred season, the Grade III National Jockey Club Handicap, and Come On Flip is cast in the role of the 5-2 favorite.
“He’s a small horse and he gives it everything he’s got,” Goldfine said. “If he gets stopped during a race, though, he’s in trouble. He’s not an easy horse to ride. He can’t be too close and he can’t be too far back.”
Mark Guidry, who is on his way to his sixth Sportsman’s title in the last seven years, will be the eighth jockey to ride Come On Flip since the gelding returned last July after spending a year recovering from fractures to both legs.
In nine races, his only victory was in the Hawthorne Gold Cup. Four of the races were in New York.
“We sent him to Stanley Hough, who has horses for me in New York, because there were no races for him at Arlington after he came back from the injury,” said Seymour Sommer, who owns Come On Flip in partnership with Robert Ackerman.
“Come On Flip came back to us at Hawthorne after he ran second in an allowance race at Aqueduct in late October,” Goldfine said.
Come On Flip took an extended vacation following his victory in the Hawthorne Gold Cup. In his first start this year, he finished ninth in a Gulfstream Park allowance race, then went to Oaklawn Park and ran third in the Grade II Razorback Handicap.
There seems to be sufficient early speed in Saturday’s 1 1/8-mile race to set up Come On Flip’s late move. The Clan’s Chief, Recoup the Cash and Natural Selection are front-runners and Bucks Nephew likes to lurk just off the pace.
“Bucks Nephew is a very solid horse,” Goldfine said. “He’s the one who concerns me.”
