Grade Three Victory for Declaration of War Colt

A TDN Rising Star at his previous stakes win last year, talented colt Speed Franco (3c Declaration of War x Nabat Seif, by Street Sense) upped the ante when prevailing in a titanic battle to win the $100,000 Grade III Dania Beach Stakes at Gulfstream on the weekend.

Trained by Gustavo Delgado, Speed Franco chased the leader Gidu throughout and while that foe stuck on tenaciously, the son of Declaration of War finally got his head in front where it counted on the wire to win the one mile turf contest by a head.

“The trainer has run this horse how they thought they needed to, close to the lead,” said winning rider Emisael Jaramillo.

“In the previous race, he ran from behind and that didn’t work so they decided to run him on the lead. The plan was to chase the lead and it worked today.”

A $170,000 Keeneland September purchase, Speed Franco runs for the Grupo 7C Racing Stable and has quite a strong turf pedigree.

With two wins and a second from just four starts, Speed Franco has won over $112,000 and is the first winner for Nabat Seif, a half-sister to triple European Group I winner Ajabr from dual French Group I winner Sierra Madre.

Nabat Seif was most recently bred to Coolmore’s Grade I winning son of War Front, Air Force Blue.