Class relief for She Takes Heart, Surprise Wedding

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A couple of stakes-caliber fillies looking to get back to their winning ways, She Takes Heart and Surprise Wedding, will square off under second-level optional-claiming conditions in Sunday’s $48,000 main event on the final card of the Gulfstream Park summer session.

Closing day features mandatory payouts in all the multirace sequences, including the Rainbow 6, which will offer a carryover in excess of $100,000 if it remains unsolved until closing day. Racing on the South Florida circuit resumes down the road on Wednesday at Gulfstream Park West.

She Takes Heart returns to a much more suitable spot after shipping to Saratoga to finish a distant sixth and last in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign on Aug. 25. She was also well beaten here earlier this summer in the Grade 2 Princess Rooney Stakes, sandwiching those two poor performances around a second-place effort in the Added Elegance overnight stakes. She Takes Heart was claimed by Loooch Racing Stables for $62,500 on May 10.

“The owner wanted to take a shot in a short field in a Grade 1 at Saratoga,” trainer Peter Walder said when asked about the futile trip north for her last start. “She lost a little weight after returning from New York, but she’s recovered now and is doing well. She definitely deserves to win a race after being beaten up pretty good in those two graded stakes, and this seems like a good spot to pick her head up and hopefully getting her back to her winning ways.”

As of Friday, Walder wasn’t sure who would be riding She Takes Heart on Sunday. With Tyler Gaffalione and Paco Lopez unavailable, Jeffrey Radosevich was listed as the rider at entry time.

“The owner wanted me to name Jeffrey, then called me this morning and said Luis Colon would be coming to ride her instead,” Walder said. “The problem is we couldn’t get who we wanted to ride her with Tyler and Paco both out of town on Sunday. So, my owner felt in that case, why not bring in a rider he knows and who he’s had success with in the past?”

Surprise Wedding is winless in six starts since closing out her 3-year-old campaign last year by capturing a statebred stakes at Tampa Bay Downs. She returned from a four-month layoff in the Sheer Drama Stakes on Sept. 8, only to stumble and lose rider Miguel Vasquez approaching the far turn.

“It looked like another horse came out of a tight spot, bumped our filly, causing her to cross her legs, stumble, and lose the rider,” said trainer David Fawkes. “Believe me, I think she could have won that race because she sure look loaded and ready to launch her rally at the time. Fortunately, she came out of the incident okay. She only grabbed a quarter and has been doing great coming into this race.

“I gave her some time off for the summer because her form was tailing off, and I didn’t want to subject her to the heat. It still might take her one more race to get back to her top form. It’s just hard to say how much she got out of that last start considering what happened.”

She Takes Heart and Surprise Wedding will face just four rivals: the stakes-placed pair of My Cousin Martha and Onebrethatatime, along with Worth Avenue and Too Much Tip, a Group 2 winner in Puerto Rico at 3 who has finished off the board in all four U.S. appearances.