Beyer Figure doesn't give fair read on Tonalist's Shape's chances in Davona Dale

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – After Tonalist’s Shape earned a career-low 70 Beyer Speed Figure in her last start, some may be concerned that she might not have come back as good at 3 as she was during her juvenile campaign. One person who has no such worries in that regard is the one whose opinion counts the most, her trainer, Saffie Joseph Jr., who expects his undefeated filly to move forward off that effort when she returns in Saturday’s $200,000 Davona Dale at Gulfstream Park.

Tonalist’s Shape and Spice Is Nice are the likely co-favorites in the Davona Dale, a one-mile race for 3-year-old fillies.

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Tonalist’s Shape launched her 3-year-old campaign with an easy 3 3/4-length victory as the prohibitive favorite in the Grade 3 Forward Gal here on Feb. 1. The performance was as visually pleasing as her victories in her other three starts, although her final clocking of 1:24.77 for seven furlongs was nearly two seconds slower than Mischevious Alex covered the same distance winning the Grade 3 Swale later that day. Hence, the low Beyer Figure for Tonalist’s Shape, who posted a career-best 89 Beyer closing out her 2-year-old season winning the one-mile Hut Hut by nine lengths on Nov. 30.

“I know her Beyer came back slow, but that race was just to get her started back,” said Joseph. “If she ran a higher number, I’d probably be more concerned bringing her back for this race in just 28 days. I’m just glad we got through it. She didn’t have to run hard, and now she’s stretching out to a distance she really likes better.”

Tonalist’s Shape has worked twice since the Forward Gal, including five furlongs in 1:00.80 on Sunday.

“She’s not really a flashy work horse,” said Joseph. “That’s as good as she will work or has worked. I’m happy with her coming into this race. Obviously, there is a little more pressure when you lead an unbeaten horse over for a race, especially after four or five wins in a row. You never want to get beat. But for me, with horses that have this kind of talent, I just want to get them to a race as good as I can and hopefully that talent will take care of the rest.”

Like her stablemate Chance It, who drew post 12 for the Fountain of Youth later on the card, Tonalist’s Shape pulled the outside post for the Grade 2 Davona Dale, which serves as the last major local prep for the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks on March 28. She’ll break from post 9 with Tyler Gaffalione aboard. He replaces Irad Ortiz Jr., who is in Saudi Arabia on Saturday.

Spice Is Nice was an instant sensation for trainer Todd Pletcher once she made it to the races here on Jan. 12, drawing off to win by a dozen lengths as the even-money favorite going a mile. She received an 84 Beyer Figure. The nicely bred daughter of Curlin is the first foal out of Grade 1 winner Dame Dorothy and brought over $1 million at the 2018 Keeneland September sale from her owners, Robert and Lowana Low.

“I wouldn’t say she surprised us the first time because she’d trained very professionally and seemed like a filly with a lot of quality,” said Pletcher. “At the same time, you never expect to win by 12 lengths. There weren’t a whole lot of other options other than stepping her up into graded stakes company in this race. We didn’t want to ship out of town and there wasn’t an allowance race at a distance we felt like it suited her. We feel like potentially she’s an [Kentucky] Oaks-caliber filly and that we needed to build in that direction.”

Chart and Bayerness also are unbeaten heading into the Davona Dale.

Chart proved a 5 1/4-length winner going six furlongs five weeks ago at Tampa Bay Downs for trainer Gary Contessa.

Bayerness has won both her starts, drawing off to an easy win in a six-furlong maiden special weight dash at Keeneland in October before returning to win a one-mile allowance race over a sloppy track at Churchill Downs six weeks later. Bayerness is trained by Cherie DeVaux.

The remainder of the field is Dream Marie, who brings a three-race winning streak into the race; Emily’s Oasis, third behind Bayerness in the slop last November at Churchill; Nikki and Papa, a late-running third despite a poor start in the Forward Gal in her only start; Reluctant Bride; and Addilyn.