Big Effect has best credentials in allowance

No matter how you slice it, one would be hard pressed to side against Big Effect in Sunday’s allowance feature at Gulfstream Park. The six-furlong dash is restricted to 3-year-olds and offers a purse of $61,000.

Big Effect is not only the lone multiple winner in the field, he is one of just two members of the lineup, along with Louie the Sun King, to be stakes-placed. He also owns a decided Beyer Figure edge over his six rivals. The career-best 83 he earned for winning an entry-level allowance race for Florida-breds in his 3-year-old debut two starts ago is easily the best of this field.

Big Effect, a son of The Big Beast trained by Eddie Plesa Jr., has also appeared to have improved markedly since getting on Lasix at the beginning of his 3-year-old campaign. Big Effect, like all 2-year-olds racing locally, was not permitted to race with Lasix in any of his seven starts a year ago, which included a third-place finish in the 6 1/2-furlong Juvenile Sprint for Florida-breds Nov. 11.

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Mekele, Blue Slide Park, and Rouki are all coming off maiden wins, the first two doing so going six furlongs in their only previous starts. Rouki, however, who earned his diploma at second asking at Tampa Bay Downs, may be the most intriguing of the trio.

Rouki finished far back in his debut but encountered trouble out of the gate when launching his career against maidens at Tampa on Feb. 3. But he looked like a different animal returning against $40,000 claiming foes with the addition of blinkers nearly three months later. He won off by six lengths in gate-to-wire fashion while bet to 2-1 favoritism despite his poor effort at first asking. The 75 Beyer he received was a 58-point improvement over his debut.

“His first race he got wiped out completely along with my other horse in the field, Life is Precious, who actually wound up finishing second,” trainer Gerald Bennett explained. “After that he kind of raced wide and really had no chance. I backed off on him after that and took him to the gate several times. The way he ran the second time, I think this colt can have a nice future.”

Mekele outran his odds pulling off a shocking half-length triumph for trainer Carlos Narvaez on April 14, doing so at a generous price of 26-1 and despite a race-long pace duel. A modestly priced $18,000 2-year-old purchase at the 2023 OBS March sale, Mekele ultimately outlasted 9-5 Bold Ambition to pull off the upset.

Blue Slide Park graduated at first asking under a $25,000 claiming tag, edging away to a two-length victory despite being fractious at the gate and finishing on his left lead. He was claimed out of the race by his present connections, owner Vicente Stella Stables and trainer Eniel Cordero, and appears to be working well for his return having posted a bullet half-mile gate drill of 48.20 – best of 51 at the distance – at Palm Meadows on May 18.

Louie the Sun King has finished off the board in all three starts since launching his 3-year-old season, finishing a distant second behind Ship to Shore in a scratched-reduced field of just four starters in the Limehouse Stakes. He is coming of a non-threatening fourth-place finish against statebred opposition on April 19.

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