HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With the exception of two starters at Oaklawn Park in December, trainer Phil Bauer basically gave his stable two months away from the races. As the calendar turns to February on Sunday, Bauer is poised to get back in the game when he sends out Clairita in a first-level allowance for older fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles that serves as the feature on Gulfstream Park’s nine-race card. Clairita, a daughter of Gun Runner, won an off-the-turf maiden race going 1 1/16 miles by 12 lengths on Nov. 21 at Churchill Downs in her second career start. Bauer had scratched her out of a one-turn mile race earlier in the meet following a third-place finish in her debut at Keeneland. “We felt she was a two-turn type, the forecast was favorable, we were hoping we’d get lucky and it worked out,” Bauer said. “Second time out she was more educated and ran very well. She’s a filly with some natural ability and hopefully she picks up where she left off.” :: Get Gulfstream Park Clocker Reports from Mike Welsch and the Clocker Team. Available every race day.  Bauer said Clairita was a horse who struggled to keep weight on earlier in her career which is why she didn’t make it to the races until October of her 3-year-old season. Clairita is a horse that Bauer hopes to stretch out even farther in distance as the year goes on. “She’s a big, long, lighter-made, long-striding filly,” Bauer said. “[Sunday], we’re drawn favorably in a short field that possesses horses with a little bit of speed so hopefully we get a good trip.” Heavenly Sunset, trained by Brad Cox, and Snowyte, conditioned by Danny Gargan, are the horses with a bit of speed. Both of them are coming off significant layoffs. Heavenly Sunset hasn’t run since finishing last in Grade 3 Indiana Oaks at Horseshoe Indianapolis on July 5. Prior to that, she finished second to Clicquot – who won the Indiana Oaks and later the Grade 1 Cotillion – in a two-turn allowance at Churchill. Snowyte, who was to scratch out of an allowance at Tampa Bay Downs on Saturday, hasn’t run since she finished second in a two-turn, first-level allowance at Keeneland on Oct. 18. The first-, third- and fourth-place finishers all came out of that race to win their next starts. “She’s doing really good, she had a disappointing 3-year-old year but she had some things that were bothering her,” trainer Gargan said. “I think she’s going to be better this year.” Snowyte, at 2, finished second in the Grade 1 Frizette as a maiden and finished eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. She came out of the Breeders’ Cup sick and didn’t get back to the races until April of her 3-year-old year. Her lone win from four starts last year came in a two-turn maiden race at Monmouth Park. Macho Music back on tab Macho Music, the Grade 2 Pat Day Mile winner in 2025, returned to the work tab Thursday at Gulfstream Park, breezing three furlongs in 34.90 seconds over the main track. Javier Castellano was aboard for the work. Macho Music has not raced since finishing fourth in the Grade 2 Amsterdam Stakes at Saratoga last July 25. Trainer Rohan Crichton said Macho Music came out of the Amsterdam with bone bruising in both hind ankles. The prognosis was to give him 60 days off. Crichton said Macho Music was off for 120 days. “He’s put on a lot of muscle, he’s really grown up physically from his 3-year-old to his 4-year-old year,” Crichton said. “He looks as though that bone bruising, we’re long past that and we’re anticipating a great year.” Crichton said he would like to get Macho Music back to Kentucky for the Grade 1 Churchill Downs Stakes on the May 2 Kentucky Derby card. Crichton said he would like to have two starts in the horse before then with the second of those being either the Army Mule Stakes on March 28 at Gulfstream or the NYRABets Sprint, a stakes restricted to Florida-breds on March 29 at Tampa Bay Downs. Macho Music won a restricted Florida-bred stakes by 11 1/2 lengths before upsetting the likes of Madaket Road and Gaming in the Churchill Downs. Romans has Derby prospect Dale Romans will be hard on the campaign trail this spring trying to win a Senate seat for the state of Kentucky. He’s also hoping he might be on the Kentucky Derby trail at the same time, a dream that gained some momentum here Thursday when Rockies Balboa ran off to an impressive five-length allowance victory in a race restricted to Florida-breds going seven furlongs on the main track. Thursday’s one-sided triumph, with jockey Junior Alvarado aboard, was the second in a row for Rockies Balboa. The son of Girvin is owned by a partnership group that includes Charles Monfort, who along with his brother Richard, are the principal owners of the Colorado Rockies baseball franchise. Rockies Balboa came to South Florida a maiden after three starts but showed off a good deal of promise in his second race when earning a 91 Beyer Speed Figure after finishing a solid second to trainer Todd Pletcher’s well-meant first-time starter Local Knowledge in a maiden special weight dash at Keeneland on Oct. 4. He’s obviously taken a shine to the local surroundings, having won his maiden by 5 3/4 lengths here to close out his 2-year-old campaign before drawing away in similar fashion when facing statebreds for the first time on Thursday. “He’s a nice colt, he ran a huge race at Keeneland, he’s got a lot of quality and I believe he can run against open company,” Romans said. “I just talked to Junior about whether he thought he will handle two turns and he said he’s ready.” As for the possibility of moving Rockies Balboa right up out of statebred allowance company into one of the many upcoming Derby preps on the horizon, Romans left little doubt about his intentions. “We might try some big boys later. You know me, I like to jump right into the deep water,” Romans said with a laugh while adding that a start in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth here later this month was “very possible.” “This is the first [and only] horse owned by Charlie Monfort, who owns the Colorado Rockies,” Romans noted. “And he’s really getting to like the game. We’ll see what he wants to do and go from there.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.