Champagne Lady, Final Belle look to move up a place or two

They’ve saved the best for last Friday at Gulfstream, with a 12-horse lineup of filly-mare turf routers concluding a nine-race program as the nominal feature.

Champagne Lady and Final Belle, the respective 2-3 finishers under identical conditions on Pegasus World Cup Day, are among the top contenders in what’s easily the deepest race of the day. The field for the $61,000 first-level allowance at 1 1/16 miles also includes Cider Apple, the first starter for Jeff Mullins since he sent a small string of runners here from his California base.

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First post is 1:05 p.m. Eastern, with the feature going at 5:16. There is a 50 percent chance of rain both Thursday and Friday.

The feature ends the 20-cent Rainbow 6 (races 4-9), which can be expected to offer a gross pool of about $400,000, assuming the jackpot is not swept Wednesday or Thursday by a solo winner. The Rainbow 6 was last emptied March 13.

As always, at least one Friday race at Gulfstream will be part of the $1-minimum Stronach 5 wager exclusive to 1/ST tracks.