Choose Joy will sit back and make one run

Choose Joy will be making her case in the later stages of the seventh race at Gulfstream Park on Thursday.

The conditioned allowance is for fillies and mares at 5 1/2 furlongs on Tapeta. It carries an optional claiming price of $50,000.

The race is part of the Rainbow 6 jackpot sequence on races 3-8 that will have an estimated pool of $525,000 There will be a mandatory payout on Saturday. The 20-cent wager has not been hit in 20 days.

Choose Joy could get a decent setup Thursday behind Tator Made, Cousin Kristi, and Drum Roll when she starts from post 2.

“I’m just looking at breaking good, getting a position, relaxing her, and making our move at the end,” said owner and trainer Steven Dwoskin.

Miguel Vasquez has the mount on the Munnings mare.

Choose Joy is a stakes winner who has won 9 of 24 starts. Five of her career victories have come on turf. She is making a rare start on Tapeta on Thursday.

“The reason is because we entered several times on the turf and the races didn’t fill,” Dwoskin said. “But I think she’ll do good on the Tapeta.”

:: Get the Inside Track with the FREE DRF Morning Line Email Newsletter. Subscribe now.

Choose Joy is 2 for 5 on synthetic tracks, with her last win on Tapeta coming in an off-the-turf allowance Dec. 3 at Gulfstream. She closed for a half-length victory under Vasquez and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 82, which is the best last-race synthetic number in this field.

As for Dwoskin, he wins at a strong 19 percent clip with starters on synthetic tracks. He likes how Choose Joy is training up to her second race since February – and he also likes her classy approach to being a racehorse.

“She does whatever she’s supposed to and does it like she’s been there before – even though she hasn’t,” he said. “She’s very [good-minded.]”

Choose Joy, who is coming off a seventh-place finish in an overnight handicap on turf April 28, has been highly consistent as a rule.

“She got bumped a little bit, but no excuses,” Dwoskin said. “She’s training good and we expect her to run good.”

Cousin Kristi is making her first start on a synthetic track. She worked a bullet half-mile in 47 seconds over the Tapeta at Gulfstream on June 8. Cousin Kristi last raced on dirt, finishing second by a neck in a local allowance May 16. She earned a Beyer of 84, which is the best last-race number in this field.

Drum Roll is returning to Tapeta after winning back-to-back turf sprints at Gulfstream. She has made two starts over a synthetic surface, with her best finish being a third in a $35,000 starter allowance on Tapeta. She has the speed to hold her position from the rail.

Tator Made raced over a synthetic track for the first time in her career last out, wiring her rivals in a first-level allowance sprint for fillies and mares bred in Florida. She figures to again be prominent when she starts from post 4.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.