3-year-old turf runners get shots in Dania Beach, Sweetest Chant

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – No track in America provides more winter opportunity for a top turf horse than Gulfstream Park. The stakes schedule throughout the four-month championship meet is dotted with grass races, with horses of all ages and genders getting their turns at regular intervals.

The next at-bats for 3-year-olds come Saturday, when the Dania Beach and the Grade 3 Sweetest Chant (for fillies) serve in support of the featured Holy Bull. Both are $100,000, one-mile races.

Dania Beach (race 10)

In what is clearly the deepest of the day’s five stakes, all sorts of variables are in play. Assuming the race stays on turf – rain was in the local forecast for Friday and Saturday – a core of lukewarm favorites will consist of Homeland, Myamanoi, Famished, and Get Smokin.

Homeland, with Jose Ortiz riding from post 3, already has developed an effective kick for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott. The New York-bred colt won his career debut versus statebreds in October, then just missed when beaten in a photo in the Central Park at Aqueduct in his only subsequent start. The son of American Pharoah will get Lasix for the first time Saturday.

Myamanoi was a romping winner of his last start, a Dec. 8 maiden route at Aqueduct, earning the highest Beyer Speed Figure (80) for a turf start from any of the 12 entered. Tyler Gaffalione has the mount Saturday.

“The mile might be a little short for him,” said trainer Danny Gargan, who had won with 5 of his last 9 Gulfstream starters into Saturday action. “But this is a serious horse. As the races get longer, he’s definitely going to be heard from.”

Famished got a 79 Beyer when finishing a close fourth behind eventual Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Structor in the Pilgrim at Aqueduct. Irad Ortiz Jr. takes the call from trainer John Kimmel.

Get Smokin was a just-miss second in the Kitten’s Joy here four weeks ago and figures as a front-end danger with Emisael Jaramillo riding.

If the 11th Dania Beach is forced to the main track because of weather, clearly the dynamics will change big-time. South Bend, a three-time winner over dirt, would then become the horse to beat, while Sprawl, a second Mott trainee, also would rate a closer look. Smash and Disc Jockey are main-track-only designates who would scratch if the race stays on grass.

Sweetest Chant (race 8)

In recent years, the Sweetest Chant has run straight through the Chad Brown stable. In one of his many remarkable feats with turf females, Brown saddled the Sweetest Chant winner every year from 2012 to 2017 before Thewayiam (2018) and A Bit Special (2019) kept his total of Sweetest Chant winners at six.

This year, Brown has a contender to start another win streak in Moral Reasoning (post 7, Javier Castellano), who will be rematched with She’s My Type (post 3, Gaffalione) among a field of nine. When first they met here four weeks ago in the Ginger Brew at 7 1/2 furlongs, She’s My Type held on by a neck from a late-surging Moral Reasoning.

Both She’s My Type, trained by Christophe Clement, and Moral Reasoning were coming off a maiden victory, and it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect both to show further improvement Saturday.

“She’s a really talented filly,” Gaffalione said of She’s My Type following the Ginger Brew. “She has such a terrific turn of foot and raw ability.”

Among the outside threats to those two favorites are Moana’s Tale, a seven-length winner versus New York-bred maidens for Gargan in her most recent start, and Micheline, an odds-on winner of a Tampa Bay Downs turf allowance for Mike Stidham in her latest. Micheline’s first victory came in the Sorority on the turf at Monmouth last September. She tried dirt next in the Grade 1 Alcibiades at Keeneland, but finished ninth, beaten 24 lengths.

“We had real high hopes for her after she won the Sorority, and then we kind of got sidetracked with her trying the dirt,” said Stidham. “We used the last race at Tampa as a confidence builder. She ran well there and has done well since, so we’re going to take a shot.”

Fringe players include Sunset Promise, fourth in the Sweetest Chant with some traffic trouble, and Cheermeister, a two-back winner of the Wait a While over the local course.

If the 23rd Sweetest Chant is forced to the main track, there’s really no telling what to expect. Only Ivyetsu and the lone main-track-only designate, Filly Jean King, have won over dirt, and those races came in softer company.