Barbaro’s younger full brother Nicanor injured himself slightly leaving the gate, put in a strong mid-race rally, but tired from his efforts and finished 10th of 12 in his eagerly anticipated debut Saturday at Gulfstream Park.

Nicanor is owned by the Lael Stable of Roy and Gretchen Jackson; trained by Michael Matz and ridden by Edgar Prado, the same connections that guided Barbaro to victories in the Florida Derby here and the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs three years ago.

The winner of the race, the eighth race on the Donn Day card, was A. Steven Miles Jr.’s Warrior’s Reward, who is trained by Ian Wilkes and was ridden by Calvin Borel.

Warrior’s Reward paid $63 after scoring by a head over 19-1 Allrightsreserved. Single Malt completed the parade of longshots, finishing third at 44-1

Nicanor was sent off at 5-2; Dubinsky was favored at 6-5 and he finished fourth.

Warrior’s Reward ran the mile in 1:39.69.


Quotes from Nicanor’s connections:

Jockey Edgar Prado: “(Nicanor’s) better than that. I’ve worked him in the mornings and he showed me a lot . He broke really fast and unfortunately grabbed his let quarter. We’ll just have to see how long it takes to heal, but I know he’s better than that.

Trainer Michael Matz (Nicanor) – “He grabbed the quarter (heel) of the left front leg leaving the gate. He wasn’t comfortable, so Edgar just wrapped up on him.”

Fractions:

:24.33, :48.03, 1:13.49 and 1:39.69.