In this age of the infamous "bounce," the fake news which claims that horses who have run a tough race are said to need weeks off to recover before they can compete again, comes the old warrior named Gold Man. 

   This 9-year-old gelding by little-known stallion Agnes Gold, was bred by the late superb turf writer, race track publicist and OBS marketing director David Goldman and was foaled on March 15 of 2009. He was the last horse bred by Dave in his long career as a breeder; the best was the multiple graded stakes-winner Caltech, winner of the Washington D. C. International and Lawrence Realization and earner of more than $700,000 racing for his friend, attorney David Romanik.

    Gold Man will make the 78th start of his career tomorrow in the fifth race at Laurel, a starter allowance at 1 1/16 miles on the grass with a purse of $25,000. It's for 3-year-olds and up who have started for a price of $8,000 or less in 2017 and 2018. And Gold Man has started for every claiming tag from $8,000 and up in his long career, which has resulted in earnings of $362,535 while campaigning for more barns than anyone can count without a calculator. He's been so tough in his own element for so long he might be in the running for "most claims by one horse in a lifetime."

    The gelding's record is 20-16-8 in his 77 tries and how many horses win 20 times in their career? 

    This will be his 15th start of 2018 - his last before this came on Nov. 4 at Laurel, and he won it by 1 1/2 lengths. In fact, he's won four of his last five with previous victories at Laurel, Timonium and Penn National. He has also made stops at Gulfstream, Delaware Park, Charles Town, Pimlico and Meadowlands along the way, after breaking his maiden at Calder Race Course in Romanik's silks in his long-ago debut on Sept. 16 of 2012    

    What makes this one more special is that it will be just the fifth time in those 77 races that Gold Man will try the grass. His record on the green stuff? Oh for four. The last turf try came in 2016 - before that, it was three times in 2013.

    But his latest trainer, Hugh McMahon, may have run out of options. Or, a dirt race that fits his conditions may not be coming up for a few weeks, and he doesn't want his machine to be sitting around doing nothing when there's money to be made. Or he thinks his bread-and-butter horse is in such good form that the surface won't matter.

    One thing we do know - the bounce won't have anything to do with the outcome. It should be interesting.

     

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