Arrest Me Red Goes for 4 in a Row in Silks Run

Lael Stables’ Arrest Me Red, who concluded his 3-year-old campaign with three straight stakes victories, is set for his 2022 debut in Saturday’s $100,000 Silks Run at Gulfstream Park.

“He’s training great. We never really gave him any time off after his last win at Aqueduct,” trainer Wesley Ward said. “We took him back to Kentucky, where he didn’t have any fast works. We just kept him jogging and galloping. We took him to Payson and he’s been working each and every week.”

The Silks Run, a five-furlong turf stakes for 4-year-olds and up, will be featured in Saturday’s program with the $100,000 Hutcheson, a six-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds, and the $100,000 Any Limit, a six-furlong sprint for 3-year-old fillies.

Arrest Me Red is coming off a front-running victory in the Nov. 27 Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship. The 4-year-old son of Pioneer of the Nile and a Medaglia d’Oro mare had previously won the Oct. 2 Belmont Turf Sprint Invitational (G3). Both turf sprints were run at six furlongs. The homebred colt won the 5 ½-furlong Mahoney Stakes at Saratoga in August.

Arrest Me Red has won five of seven career starts, including four wins from five turf races, but has yet to run a distance shorter than 5 ½ furlongs.

“He should love it. I’d say he’d be better. He’s a very fast horse,” Ward said. “He looks like a quarter horse. He’s a beautiful horse too.”

Irad Ortiz Jr., who was aboard for Arrest Me Red’s victory in the Belmont Turf Sprint Invitational, has the mount Saturday.