Northern Afleet, the nation’s leading sire, padded his lead on Feb. 5 when Teaks North scored a come-from-behind victory in the $300,000, Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap.  Teaks North is the fourth stakes winner, and the first in a Grade 1, of the year for Northern Afleet. His offspring have earned nearly $800,000 in just over a month.

Teaks North also earned the first Grade 1 win for himself and his trainer Justin Sailusto in the “Turf”. His previous stakes wins both came at Monmouth Park, in the Restoration S. and Big Brown S. He also finished third in the Grade 3 Discovery H. last year at Aqueduct.

Saturday at Gulfstream, Teaks North was in sixth for nearly the entire race; that is until jockey Jose Valdivia, Jr. swung him out wide to come rolling past horses to get up by a nose on the wire. He covered 1 1/8 miles in 1:46.39.

“My son (Nick) selected the horse and turned him over to me in February,” said Sailusto. “He (Teaks North) is very versatile, he can turf and dirt. We were torn between running him here or in the Sunshine Millions Turf at Santa Anita and after looking over both races decided this was the easier spot. It looks like we made the right decision.”

A potential invitation to the Dubai World Cup Festival looms for Teaks North.

“It would be nice to get invited to the Festival, either for the Classic or the turf race, I don’t think either would be out of reach,” Nick Sailusto said.

Teaks North is now 5-1-2 in 12 starts, earning $364,400. Bred in Florida by Brylynn Farm, Inc., Teaks North is owned by Jules Boutelle and trained by Justin Sailusto.

The dam of Teaks North has been an excellent producer. Besides Teaks North, she is the dam of Grade 2 winner Wooden Phone, and listed winners Chief Okie Dokie and Teak Totem.