Allowance sprints featured on Wednesday card

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A pair of $54,000 statebred allowance races to be decided at six furlongs on the main track highlight the final Wednesday program of the 2022-23 Gulfstream Park Championship meet, which ends Sunday.

A field of six colts and geldings will decide the afternoon’s fifth event, a well-matched group topped by Rockin Roller and recent runaway maiden special weight winner Khozeiress.

Trained by Eddie Plesa Jr., Rockin Roller has improved with each start since finishing far back in the mile and one-sixteenth In Reality Stakes here last fall. His most recent outing was his best yet, a game three-quarter-length optional-claiming and starter-allowance victory going 5 1/2 furlongs over the Tapeta track. That victory was flattered when runner-up Loco Abarrio returned to defeat similar competition by 3 1/2 widening lengths in his next start.

Rockin Roller earned a career-high 81 Beyer Speed Figure for that Feb. 22 victory, his second win in six career starts. Rockin Roller won his debut by 1 3/4 lengths last September against open $50,000 maiden-claiming competition going 6 1/2 furlongs over the main track.

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Khozeiress finished a distant second behind Loco Abarrio when launching his career on Dec. 26. He returned 10 weeks later to graduate with a flourish while getting Lasix and trying Florida-bred competition for the first time. He led throughout to register a 7 1/4-length victory in the maiden special weight and received a 79 Beyer Figure.

The pace figures to be honest, with Khozeiress likely to be engaged early on by Dropkick Murphy, Uncaptured Star, and Roll On Big Joe, who is turning back in distance off a second-place finish at seven furlongs behind the 50-1 Naruto on Feb. 23. Roll On Big Joe was a 14 1/2-length winner going a mile against open maiden $50,000 claiming opposition on Jan. 22.

Seven 3-year-old fillies will contest the seventh race. The bulk of bettors’ attention will likely be on the steadily improving The Mrs and Charlie’s Wish, second twice in stakes.

The Mrs has improved from a Beyer standpoint with each outing and enters the race off a sharp third going seven panels five weeks ago in a race similar to Wednesday’s. Charlie’s Wish returns to the allowance ranks off a fifth-place finish making her two-turn debut in Tampa’s Suncoast Stakes on Feb. 11.

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