Bluefield drops from graded stakes company

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Like people, most horses also tend to slow down the older they get. One exception to that rule is the ageless Bluefield, who had the best year of her career as a 7-year-old in 2023 and ran the best race of her life shortly after turning 8 earlier this year.

On Thursday, Bluefield will return from a brief freshening as the odds-on favorite against five other fillies and mares, dropping back into the allowance ranks after having kept a steady diet of graded stakes company in her last three starts. The first of two allowance races on the card, the afternoon’s main event will be decided at six furlongs over the main track for a $62,000 purse.

Bluefield won 2 of 7 starts and banked $158,495 during her 7-year-old campaign, including victories in an overnight handicap for Florida-breds here in May and a statebred stakes on Dec. 9 at Tampa Bay. Bluefield, a daughter of Field Commission owned by her breeder Edward Seltzer, also finished fourth behind stablemate Three Witches in the Grade 3 Princess Rooney late last fall.

After closing 2023 with a fifth in the Grade 3 Sugar Swirl, Bluefield opened the new year with her best effort yet, finishing second behind Olivia Darling in the Grade 2 Inside Information, earning a career-high 94 Beyer Speed Figure in the process. Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. opted to wheel her right back three weeks later off that effort in the Grade 3 Barbara Fritchie at Laurel, where she turned in a disappointing performance, finishing fifth as the 4-5 favorite after a bit of an eventful trip.

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“The race in Maryland looked good on paper. She was in the form of her life at the time, but it turned out to be the wrong decision, bringing her back in 20 days and shipping her all the way to Maryland like that,” Joseph admitted. “So we just brought her back home and re-grouped, gave her a little time off, and this is a good place to start her back. She should be tough in this spot. She’s plenty fit and always runs well fresh.”

Joseph said getting a graded win on her résumé before retiring is the goal in 2024.

“I think we’ll just keep her here this year, maybe shoot for the Musical Romance, and then try to get her back to the Princess Rooney again in the fall,” Joseph said.

Hihellohowareyou, the youngest member of the field at 4, looms Bluefield’s chief threat exiting a popular 2 1/2-length victory over lesser allowance opposition on April 13, a performance that earned her a lifetime-best 80 Beyer Speed Figure. Hihellohowareyou has improved steadily since she was beaten 14 lengths by Bluefield when the pair first met in the City of Ocala Stakes at Tampa five months earlier.

Hihellohowareyou is trained by Jose D’Angelo, who had himself a memorable afternoon on Saturday, winning the Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies here with first-time starter Gabaldon less than an hour after sending out Twirling Queen to upset Churchill Downs’s Mamzelle Stakes.

Gabaldon, a bargain $9,000 yearling purchase, withstood an early pace duel to register a 1 1/4-length victory over Joseph’s late-running Reach for the Rose to earn herself a free berth into one of the six juvenile stakes to be run at next month’s Royal Ascot meet.

Twirling Queen, who captured a pair of races over the synthetic Tapeta track here during the Championship meet, rallied from just off the pace before holding safe challenges by Toupie and Cloudwalker to win the $225,000 Mamzelle by three-quarters of a length while making a successful turf debut.

“I never could get her in on the grass at Gulfstream Park because it was always raining, so she ran and won on the synthetic twice,” D’Angelo said of Twirling Queen. “But I was confident she could win because of how well she worked on the grass here. And Francisco [Arrieta] rode her perfectly.”

◗ Apprentice Melvis Gonzalez registered the first win of his riding career when guiding Awesome Wind to victory for trainer Carlos David in Sunday’s fifth race. The memorable moment came for Gonzalez in just his eighth lifetime mount.

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