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Salad Girl, slipping through along the rail turning for home, opened a daylight lead with a furlong remaining, and then had enough left to turn back the late challenge of favored Delightful Magic and come away with a hard-earned neck victory in the $100,000 Gasparilla Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs.
With jockey Angel Serpa contributing a dazzling ride, Salad Girl covered the seven furlongs over a fast racing strip in 1:24.14 to post her third win from four career starts. She was making her first start since winning the six-furlong Jersey Juvenile at Monmouth Park ijn late October.
“I was farther back than I hoped to be, so all I could do was take hold and wait,” Serpa said. “When I saw the rail open, I asked her and she responded so good. She went through so fast. Then when she felt that other filly outside her, I rode her hard and she responded again. She is such a nice filly.”
Trained by Eddie Plesa Jr., Salad Girl returned a generous $18.40.
Delightful Magic, the third-place finisher in the Grade 3 Delta Princess last time out, raced wide much of the trip and wound up 1 1/2 lengths in front of third-place Ciguarya in the field of 10.
Best Bets
A 5-year-old maiden-claimer with a history of breaking slowly is the most probable winner on the Friday-night card. Yikes. However, THREE LITTLE BIRDS ran super in his comeback two weeks ago, and can win this maiden-20 with a better takeoff. Off slowly, he uncorked a big middle move, lost ground sweeping four-wide through the turn, challenged for the lead turning for home, and then flattened out to finish fourth. It was a big effort by a gelding that benefits from an additional half-furlong. With a clean break in his third career start, this is a race he should win.
