$94,227 pick five carryover awaits on Friday card

Coast-to-coast horseplayers otherwise immersed in Saratoga and Del Mar may want to divert their attention to Gulfstream Park at some point Friday afternoon.

A $94,227 carryover in the 50-cent late pick five (races 5-9) at the South Florida track figures to attract upward of $1 million in new handle. Twilight first post is 2:55 p.m. Eastern, with the pick five starting at 5:12 and the last race going at 7:22.

The sequence doesn’t look particularly easy, with all subject races being for maidens and/or claimers on dirt or Tapeta. There are no huge favorites in any of them, with the lowest morning-line prices being on Democracy (7-5 in race 7) and Creme Caramel (9-5 in race 5).

The rare carryover is from Sunday, when a 40-1 winner, South Pointe Drive, was a major factor in reducing the late pick five to 4-of-5 consolation payouts.

Besides the pick five, Gulfstream also is offering a $175,000 pool guarantee Friday in the 20-cent Rainbow 6, which spans races 4-9. The Rainbow 6 jackpot was last emptied July 8.

High temperatures near 90 and a 40 percent rain chance are in the Friday forecast for Hallandale Beach.

Race 5: Creme Caramel was an okay third in her first crack at the “never-won-two” condition that governs this one-mile main-track race and now drops in for a bottom-level claiming price of $6,250 when having Science Friction, Pearlintherough, and Brimage as her chief opposition in a field of eight fillies and mares.

Race 6: There are maybe only a couple of toss-outs in an otherwise well-matched field of eight 3-year-olds and up in this maiden-special sprint, with trainer Ralph Nicks seeming to hold the strongest hand with the uncoupled pair of Nic’s Bro and Blind Eye.

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Race 7: Yes, the Antonio Sano-trained Democracy could be the most popular single, but the 4-year-old gelding probably will need to run back to his last race, when he drew off by 3 1/2 lengths when scaling the class ladder. A field of seven is entered in this $12,500 “never-won-three” claimer at seven furlongs.

Race 8: Three of the last four races for One Identity came in stakes, so she appears to be the class of eight fillies and mares going six furlongs – but her last two races were so subpar that she now finds herself in for a $35,000 claiming tag. Amazing Trip, Dignified, and Divine Connection are the most logical to fill the void if she’s just no longer up to the task.

Race 9: Tora Lora Lora and Centsational Grace, the two outside fillies in an oversubscribed lineup of bottom-level maiden-claimers, are the lukewarm program favorites in this Tapeta sprint – and finding something else to beat them will require one of those rivals to surpass their current form.

Leon with Gulfstream winner

Kentucky Derby-winning jockey Sonny Leon won with one of his eight mounts last weekend when riding at Gulfstream for the first time in seven years.

Leon scored aboard She’s Classy ($6.40) in the fourth race Saturday, a $10,000 conditioned claimer going five furlongs on Tapeta, for trainer Jose D’Angelo.

Leon came to racing’s forefront this spring with his winning ride aboard 80-1 shot Rich Strike in the Derby. The 32-year-old Venezuela native has ridden regularly on the South Florida circuit before, having posted four wins from a combined 71 mounts at Gulfstream and the old Gulfstream West in 2015, his first year of riding in the United States.

‘Auramet’ hits for cycle

Miss Auramet ($4.60) earned an 86 Beyer Speed Figure in a 2 3/4-length victory Sunday in the $55,000 Biscayne Park, making the 6-year-old mare a winner over synthetic, dirt, and turf in a 32-race career during which she has collected $627,550.

Winners of the Saturday features were Last Leaf ($5.80), who got an 84 Beyer in the $75,000 Azalea, and Novo Sol ($5.40), who led a 1-2-3 finish for Saffie Joseph Jr. in winning the $55,000 Hallandale Beach with a 90 Beyer.

Miss Gracie up ahead

The highlight of the coming weekend at Gulfstream is the $75,000 Miss Gracie, to be run Saturday at about 1 1/16 miles on Tapeta. Freedom Speaks, second last out in the Game Face on June 18 behind her Ron Spatz stablemate Last Leaf, looms a major contender among the 3-year-old fillies deemed likely when Saturday entries were drawn Wednesday. The $55,000 North Bay Village, a two-turn Tapeta handicap for fillies and mares, is slated for the undercard.