Golden Pal Looms Large in Indian Summer

Ranlo Investments’ Golden Pal, a 3½-length winner at 2-5 in the Skidmore in August at Saratoga, looms as the horse to beat in a field of eight 2-year-olds entered Thursday for Sunday’s third running of the 5½-furlong $150,000 Indian Summer (L) Presented by Keeneland Select.

The Indian Summer, slated for a 4 p.m. ET post time as Sunday’s sixth race, is a “Win and You’re In” race for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G2) to be run here Nov. 6.

Trained by Wesley Ward, who won the Indian Summer last year with Kimari, Golden Pal debuted on dirt at Gulfstream Park in April but then ventured to Royal Ascot in England, where he finished second by a neck in the Norfolk (G2).

Golden Pal will be ridden Sunday by Tyler Gaffalione and break from post position five.

Ward has two other entrants in the race with the most accomplished being Stonestreet Stables’ Wink.

A winner of her first two starts, including the Colleen at Monmouth, Wink most recently traveled to Longchamp France, where she finished second in the Prix d’Arenberg (G3) going 5 furlongs. Gerardo Corrales has the mount Sunday and will break from post position three.

The field for the Indian Summer, with riders and weights from the inside, is: Cowan (Ricardo Santana Jr., 118 pounds), Bodenheimer (Brian Hernandez Jr., 120), Wink (Corrales, 117), Roderick (Julio Garcia, 118), Golden Pal (Gaffalione, 120), Good With People (Luis Saez, 120), Agog (James Graham, 115) and Petit Verdot (Joe Talamo, 118).