Battle Cry will save best for stretch of overnight handicap
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Trainer Victor Barboza Jr. is hoping Battle Cry gets the right setup on Sunday in the $60,000 Musical Romance Handicap at Gulfstream Park.
“If the pace is very, very fast, my mare has a good chance in the race,” he said.
The Musical Romance is a 6 1/2-furlong overnight handicap for fillies and mares bred in Florida. A field of seven is entered, but Barboza said that Beth’s Dream, his other runner in the race, will be scratched in favor of the Lady’s Secret on June 10 at Monmouth Park.
Beth’s Dream was co-highweighted at 124 pounds on Sunday with R Adios Jersey, who could now go favored as she drops from a pair of graded stakes starts at Gulfstream.
Battle Cry is a winner of four of her last five starts, including a $12,500 starter allowance over seven furlongs April 23 at Gulfstream. She closed from next to last to win by more than five lengths, and she earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 81.
“Battle Cry has been a very special filly for us,” said Barboza, who trains the daughter of Prospective for Skull Stable.
Battle Cry is a horse for the Gulfstream course. She has won five races and finished second in five others from 20 starts on the local main track. Battle Cry, who is a full sister to two-time stakes winner Ceci Valentina, drew post 2.
“For the scratch, she’ll be running from post 1,” Barboza said. “I don’t like that for her.”
Edwin Gonzalez has the mount on Battle Cry.
R Adios Jersey figures to be prominent and will break outside of fellow speed horses Poiema and Bluefield. R Adios Jersey exits the Grade 3 Hurricane Bertie in March. She finished second, but was placed third for causing interference. R Adios Jersey earned a Beyer of 85 in the Hurricane Bertie. The winner of the race, millionaire Frank’s Rockette, returned in her next start to win the Roxelana at Churchill Downs.
R Adios Jersey shows a sharp five-eighths work in 1:00.80 on May 20 at Gulfstream as part of her prep work for the Musical Romance. Prior to the Hurricane Bertie, she set the pace and finished fourth in the Grade 2 Inside Information going seven furlongs on Jan. 28.
Leonel Reyes has the mount for trainer Georgina Baxter.
R Adios Jersey, who starts from the widest post, is a three-time stakes winner. She is moving back to the Florida-bred ranks for the first time since December, when she won the City of Ocala Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs for the second year in a row. She is 3 for 7 on the main track at Gulfstream.
R Adios Jersey races for Averill Racing, ATM Racing, and Jayson Werth.
The Musical Romance is named for the champion who won the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint in 2011. She was based in South Florida. Musical Romance’s co-owner and trainer, Bill Kaplan, died earlier this month at 77.
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