Gulfstream Park: Kenneally's pair the ones to beat in Friday sprint allowances

Tom Keyser

Force de La Nature will likely be favored in a six-furlong allowance on Friday at Gulfstream Park.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Eddie Kenneally may hold the key to both allowance races that headline Friday’s 10-race program at Gulfstream Park.

Kenneally will send out Force de La Nature as the horse to beat in the afternoon’s sixth event, a $57,500 second-level allowance dash for older fillies and mares to be decided at six furlongs. He’ll also bring back Honorable Dillon, a very impressive maiden winner in his last start at Saratoga, from a four-month freshening to go postward as the likely favorite in the ninth race, a 6 1/2-furlong optional claiming test for 3-year-olds.

Force de La Nature is coming off a third-place finish under second-level optional claiming conditions at Churchill Downs on Nov. 21. Force de La Nature, a daughter of Scat Daddy, rallied belatedly to finish just two lengths behind the winner while making her first start in five months.

“She’s a hard knocker, she’s doing great, we’re happy with her right now,” Kenneally said. “She ran well off the layoff at Churchill and probably needed the race. I expect her to run well on Friday.”

Honorable Dillon has not started since overcoming an eventful start to win a six-furlong maiden special weight race Aug. 25 at Saratoga. The runner-up in that event was Delhomme, who won a maiden race and then finished third in the Remsen in two subsequent starts. Honorable Dillon, a son of Tapit, has been training steadily for his return at Palm Meadows, where he posted a bullet half-mile work in 47.20 seconds from the gate Dec. 15.

“He won a nice maiden race on Travers Day at Saratoga, had some baby issues after that race, we freshened him up through the fall and started breezing him in November,” Kenneally said. “He’s had several good works getting ready for this comeback race. He ran well the first time I ran him then came back and won impressively. He might not be a horse who’ll run his very best race off the shelf. He might be a horse who’ll benefit from a race, but he is a 3-year-old with a big future, that’s for sure.”

Force de La Nature could get his sternest test from Klondike Kate, who finished a wide-running third while racing along a deep rail in a well-graded second-level optional claiming dash here early in the meet. The winner of that race, Appealing Stella, returned to win a stakes at Tampa Bay Downs in her next start.

Other top contenders in the sixth race include Ready to Unleash, who was beaten a neck following a race-long pace duel in her Churchill finale, and Starship Serena.

If Honorable Dillon does need one off the bench, Singanothersong and Really Sharp could prove the major beneficiaries.

Singanothersong finished third under similar conditions here just two weeks earlier after making the pace into the stretch and despite finishing on his left lead. The Calder-based son of Songandaprayer was stakes placed during the fall of his 2-year-old season.

Really Sharp finished a solid third behind Violence after making the early pace in the Grade 2 Nashua at Aqueduct on Nov. 4. Really Sharp wore blinkers for the first time that day and will have blinkers back on again Friday after trainer Ian Black removed the hood for his fourth-place finish in Woodbine’s Display on Dec. 1.