HAL­LAN­DALE BEACH – Fresh off a dom­i­nant per­for­mance in the Smile Sprint at Gulf­stream Park in Flori­da over the week­end, the tal­ent­ed sprint­er ‘Im­ple­men­ta­tion’ is set­ting his sights on an even big­ger prize, the $2 mil­lion Ken­tucky Downs Turf Sprint lat­er this sum­mer.

Trained by Bar­ba­di­an Saffie Joseph Jr, the ver­sa­tile 5-year-old de­liv­ered a ca­reer-best ef­fort on Sat­ur­day, cruis­ing to a two-length vic­to­ry in the six-fur­long Smile Sprint while earn­ing a 97 Bey­er Speed Fig­ure, the high­est of his ca­reer.

The win marked his sec­ond straight stakes tri­umph, fol­low­ing a com­mand­ing score in the Army Mile Stakes on March 29.

De­spite his re­cent suc­cess on dirt, Joseph con­firmed that ‘Im­ple­men­ta­tion’ will like­ly re­turn to the turf, a sur­face where he has thrived in the past, for a shot at the lu­cra­tive Ken­tucky Downs Turf Sprint.

“I thought six fur­longs might be too short for him, but he han­dled it per­fect­ly,” said Joseph. Even though he’s proven him­self on dirt, he loves Ken­tucky Downs, so that’s our next tar­get.”

The geld­ing has been flaw­less over the un­du­lat­ing Ken­tucky Downs course, win­ning both of his starts there in al­lowance races at 6½ fur­longs in the past two sum­mers.

Owned by Ken Ram­sey, ‘Im­ple­men­ta­tion’ has shown a par­tic­u­lar affin­i­ty for the unique turf track, prompt­ing Joseph to aim high.

“I’d love to get him in the big one if we can. He ran well over that course last year, and with the way he’s per­form­ing now, we think he de­serves a shot.”

With his re­cent form and proven ver­sa­til­i­ty, ‘Im­ple­men­ta­tion’ could be a ma­jor con­tender in one of the rich­est turf sprints in North Amer­i­ca, adding an­oth­er thrilling chap­ter to his rapid­ly as­cend­ing ca­reer.

CMC