Candy Quest the highweight in her first start on Tapeta

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Northern-based horses have slowly begun to make their way back to South Florida for the upcoming Championship meet, which is now less than three weeks away. Their presence on the local scene is already being felt on Saturday’s program at Gulfstream Park in each of the overnight handicap events that highlight the 10-race card.

The first of the two $60,000 co-features will be decided at a mile and 70 yards over the Tapeta course for fillies and mares with the Mark Casse trained duo of Candy Quest and Minty, a couple of new faces, likely to garner plenty of support.

Candy Quest will go postward the 124-pound highweight despite returning from a near eight-month layoff. She is the class of the field, having captured the Grade 3 Ontario Colleen as a 3-year-old at Woodbine during the summer of 2025 and finishing fifth, beaten less than five lengths by Lush Lips, in the prestigious Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland several months later.

Candy Quest has not started since finishing ninth after prompting the pace in the Sand Springs here March 28 and is a bit of a question mark trying the synthetic surface for the first time in her 13th lifetime start.

Minty returns locally after spending the summer competing at Colonial Downs and Laurel Park. She also has had limited experienced on the Tapeta track, although she did defeat first-level allowance company over this course nearly a year earlier in her 2025 finale.

The local contingent is topped by a bevy of familiar faces to this condition, headed by Miss Mary Nell, who won the Ginger Punch Handicap in her last start over the Tapeta on Sept. 12. It was her sixth victory in 13 tries over the course.

Ashima is another who relishes the Tapeta strip, having won nine of her 13 outings on that surface. Although she may need a race, according to trainer Sal Santoro, having been away since finishing fourth in the FHBPA Filly and Mare Turf Stakes on April 25.

“She’s fresh, she’s feeling good. This is as good a spot to get her going as any,” Santoro said. “I’m not putting on a clean shirt for a win picture first race back, but she’s on a surface she likes and I think she’s going to run good. Hopefully, she’ll get something out of the race.”

A trio of recent arrivals from up north, led by the 123-pound topweight Poulin in O T, along with Wildncrazynight and Louie the Sun King, all figure prominently in the co-featured 10th race, also to be run under handicap conditions at 5 1/2 furlongs on the turf, weather permitting.

Poulin in O T has won a race over the Tapeta track here each of the last two winters for trainer Steve Owens and, as usual, returns from his summer home at Woodbine in top form, having captured a restricted stakes and finished fifth while defeated only a length in the Grade 3 Bold Venture Stakes in his two most recent starts.

Wildncrazynight has improved dramatically, having captured both starts since trainer Kelly Breen switched him over to grass for the first time to win a allowance dash late this summer at Monmouth Park. The speedy 4-year-old returned a month later to defeat similar but slightly tougher competition over the turf at Colonial Downs prior to vanning south for the winter.

Louie the Sun King also was a winner at Colonial during the summer but has shown a distinct fondness for the Gulfstream turf course as well, having won three times and finished on the board in 9 of 11 starts over the local strip.

The home forces are topped by Mattingly, who comes off a third-place finish under similar conditions just three weeks earlier. He also won the Bob Umphrey Turf Sprint, a race switched to the Tapeta track due to weather considerations, on Sept. 12.

The remainder of the well-matched lineup includes Esperon and Full Disclosure, who finished third and sixth, respectively, in the Umphrey, along with 3-year-olds Wootun and stakes-placed Diciassette.