Basking attempts to start career 3 for 3 in Sunday allowance

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With winter fast approaching, the quality of racing figures to improve moving forward at Gulfstream Park. A case in point is Sunday’s nine-race program, which includes a trio of allowance events, all over the synthetic Tapeta surface.

Perhaps the most intriguing horse on the card is the lightly raced 3-year-old filly Basking, who puts her perfect record on the line against six rivals going five furlongs in the afternoon’s third race. Basking, a daughter of Lord Nelson trained by Lisa Lewis for owner Peter Brant, launched her career rallying to a 10 1/2-length maiden special weight victory over a sloppy track here in July 2021. She was then off for 14 months, returning in an optional claiming and allowance race here Sept. 25. Basking overcame a slow start and her own immaturity to record a three-quarter-length victory going 5 1/2 furlongs over the Tapeta. She earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 79.

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Lewis said after Basking’s last performance that foot issues were the major cause for the long layoff. Lewis said she always believed turf would be her filly’s preferred surface, but she ran her on Tapeta because no grass racing is scheduled locally until Dec. 1.

Basking’s most formidable oppostion might be Fulton Market, who is on a two-race win streak of her own; Quinoa Tifah, back on Tapeta off a second-place effort against overnight handicap competition over the main track four weeks ago; and the 7-year-old Nikee Kan.

In Sunday’s sixth race, Tigre should be heavily favored returning to the synthetic track and going a mile and 70 yards against seven other 2-year-olds. In the Oct. 1 In Reality Stakes, Tigre rallied from the rear of the field to finish second, 1 1/2 lengths behind the odds-on Awesome Strong, who was Breeders’ Cup-bound before suffering a minor injury while training in Kentucky.

In the eighth race, Poiema projects to be a strong favorite. Top contenders in the 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares include Golden Voice, No Valla, and Flying Black.

White Abarrio works

On Friday, White Abarrio had his most serious work since exiting a fifth-place finish in the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby on Sept. 24 at Parx, zipping five furlongs in 58.94 seconds. He was asked to finish before galloping out six panels in 1:11.72 and easing up seven-eighths in 1:25.68 over a fast track. White Abarrio is being pointed for the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct on Dec. 3.

“This was his third work back and first at five-eighths since what I thought was a very good effort in the Pennsylvania Derby,” trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said. “He’ll have two more works here before he ships to New York.”

Tyler Gaffalione, who guided White Abarrio to a very impressive victory in the Grade 1 Florida Derby here in the spring and to a second-place finish in the Ohio Derby in June, will have the mount in the Cigar Mile.

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