Favorite Tale scores upset, Breeders' Cup-bound

Favorite Tale left a champion and a Kentucky Derby runner in his wake Sunday while wiring Gulfstream Park's Grade II Smile Sprint, a Breeders' Cup "Win and You're In" qualifier to this October's races at Keeneland.

The 4-year-old by Tale of the Cat set the pace and never looked back in the six-furlong race worth $250,000 that topped the Florida track's "Summit of Speed" card.

"We hoped he could run a good race here because last year the owners wanted to go to the Breeders' Cup, but he's not eligible and it costs a lot of money," said trainer Guadalupe Preciado, whose gelding finished in a speedy 1:08.85. "I told them let's wait a year because hopefully he could win a race and get in. So this was perfect.

"He's been training beautiful. For this race, he was doing unbelievable and you couldn't ask him to go better than the way he did it."

Work All Week, last year's Breeders' Cup Sprint winner, ran second by 4 1/4 lengths. He's now either won or finished runner-up in 16 straight starts. Wildcat Red, who ran in the 2014 Derby, came in third.

Owner Richard Papiese, who campaigns Work All Week for Midwest Thoroughbreds, said jockey Florent Geroux told him that "when the horse inside him (Falling Sky) broke through the gate, (Work All Week) actually smashed his face. He's bleeding. No excuses, but it's not a good thing."

Favorite Tale paid $17.00 to win, taking the victory from the inside post in the field of 11. He's the first to earn an automatic bid to this year's Breeders' Cup Sprint.

• Also Sunday at Gulfstream Park Merry Meadow stalked and successfully ran down Flutterby to win the Grade II Princess Rooney Stakes. The 5-year-old Kentucky-bred mare earned a trip to the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint. She's also the first officially in the field for that race, too.

• And in Chile, Argentinian-bred Urko took the Copa de Oro at Club Hipico, gaining a berth in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile.