Therapist, claimed two starts back for $50,000, wins the Grade 2 Pan American Saturday at Gulfstream Park. Gulfstream Park Photo.
Michael Dubb saw Therapist in for a $50,000 tag in late January at Gulfstream Park and started thinking about down the road.
“This particular 8-year-old is a New York-bred, and I race in New York all summer long,” Dubb said of the then multiple stakes winner and graded-placed gelding by Freud. “My thought was, I knew he was well taken care of because the previous trainer who is also a trainer of mine is a great caregiver.
“They decided to move the horse along, and they sold him for a pretty good price. He wound up in a claiming race and I said, ‘I think we can win some New York-bred races.’ I was never dreaming we would do this.”
This turned out to be Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Pan American Stakes on the Florida Derby Day undercard at Gulfstream Park. And this turned out to be a three-quarters of a length victory for Therapist – his first in a graded stakes – in the 62nd renewal of the 12-furlong event. Irad Ortiz Jr. rode Therapist to victory for Dubb and trainer Mike Maker.
Therapist, a seven-time stakes winner before the Pan American, won for the 12th time in 39 start.
“This horse knows his way to the winner’s circle; it’s his 12th time,” Dubb said. “The pedigree really screamed long and we said, ‘Let’s give it a try and see what happens.’ Then you have Irad Ortiz as your pilot, and it all comes together.”
Even-money favorite Master Piece led into the stretch and looked poised to go on to victory but was caught inside the final sixteenth by Therapist on the inside and Bay Street Money on the outside. Therapist, who returned $11, won in 2:29.22.
Maker and Dubb claimed Therapist out of his third-place finish on the turf at Gulfstream Jan. 20. He prepped for the Pan American with a victory in a starter allowance event on the Tapeta synthetic surface Feb. 11.
“He’s an old, class horse,” said Nolan Ramsey, Maker’s assistant. “He does everything right. He’s easy to train. This was his first start at this distance, but his pedigree says he’ll run long, so we tried him here and it worked out.”
The Pan American was Therapist’s victory stakes victory since the Artie Schiller – also against open company – in mid-November 2020.
Named champion New York-bred 2-year-old male in 2017, Therapist won that season’s Laurel Futurity at Laurel Park and Awad Stakes at Belmont Park for trainer Christophe Clement. He returned to win three of seven starts at 3 in 2018, including the Cutler Bay Stakes at Gulfstream. Therapist also won stakes at 4 and 5, finished second in the West Point Stakes at Saratoga at 6 and on the board in two more stakes on the NYRA circuit at 7 last year.
Bred by Oak Bluff Stables and Christophe Clement and foaled at Berkshire Stud in Pine Plains, Therapist is one of two stakes winners out of the winning Smart Strike mare Lady Renaissance. Her other stakes winner, Therapist’s full sister Fresco, won or placed in seven of 10 starts for Oak Bluff and Clement and earned $125,350.
