Call the Bullpen well spotted for stakes breakthrough in Miss Gracie
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Call the Bullpen will return to Florida and make her stakes debut in the $100,000 Miss Gracie on Saturday at Gulfstream Park. The 3-year-old filly is coming off two game efforts in Kentucky for trainer Carlos David.
“She’s got the numbers,” David said. “I’d rather run her in a straight 3-year-old stake in Florida than an open allowance in Kentucky. She’s run good in those open allowances, but they just don’t have anything straight for 3-year-old fillies anymore.”
In four first-level allowances at Gulfstream, Churchill Downs, and Ellis Park since March, Call the Bullpen has finished in the money three times without breaking through. In her most recent attempt at Ellis last month, she was bumped late by the eventual winner and lost by a head with a career-best 79 Beyer Speed Figure.
David said he believed the jockey’s objection that day should have led to a disqualification and change in order, but he was still happy with the filly’s performance and will return to Florida with confidence. It might be her first stakes, but she will try the mile on turf with plenty of seasoning.
“I would have loved to get that condition and then the stake, because if you win the stake, then you blow the condition,” David said. “But that’s fine. Like I said, it’s either running in the stakes or run against the older horses.”
Laigina will likely vie with Call the Bullpen for favoritism in the field of eight 3-year-old fillies, having run in stakes company in her last four starts in Florida for trainer Patrick Biancone. She returned from a short layoff in July and seemed to regress in the $75,000 Powder Break after the race was moved to synthetic.
“We gave her a break at the end of the spring and she came back with a good race last time,” Biancone said. “She’s ready for this weekend. She didn’t like [the synthetic] too much, to be honest. She didn’t have great action on that, but we’re back on turf.”
In her last start on turf in May, the Florida-bred filly ran on to finish second in the $100,000 Honey Ryder with a 78 Beyer. In six career starts on the grass, she has only finished out of the money once, when she ran fourth in the Grade 3 Florida Oaks at Tampa Bay Downs.
Sorokin, a lightly raced filly trained by Saffie Joseph Jr., will return from a short layoff and switch from dirt to turf in her fourth career start. After earning her maiden victory in March, she returned in June and finished a distant fourth in the $100,000 Azalea. The Miss Gracie also will be her first route attempt.
Bayou Brigid is one of two last-out winners in the field and has won her last two turf starts for trainer Heather Smullen, including a stylish photo-finish score in a first-level allowance last month. In June, she switched to synthetic and ran third in the $75,000 Martha Washington.
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