HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Crimson Advocate, the only filly in the field, made a triumphant return to the place where it all began, the Gulfstream Park turf course, by overcoming a bit of an eventful start before rallying to a popular one-length victory over Reef Runner and five other males in Saturday’s $90,000 Roar Stakes. Crimson Advocate was ridden to victory by Edwin Gonzalez, who also won the $90,000 Monroe Stakes aboard Ocean Club earlier on the card. Crimson Advocate used her 3 1/2-length triumph in the Royal Palm Juvenile Stakes in her turf debut here a year ago as a steppingstone to upsetting the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes five weeks later at Ascot.  She would make only one more start at 2, finishing sixth after contesting the pace through midstretch in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. With her 3-year-old debut delayed several times due to various reasons, trainer George Weaver settled on the five-furlong Roar to launch her campaign, hoping to use the race as a prep for the filly to make a return trip to Ascot in June. :: Access morning workout reports straight from the tracks and get an edge with DRF Clocker Reports The Roar did not begin well for Crimson Advocate, who stumbled shortly after the break, although she recovered quickly to race within easy striking distance of the pace-setting Esperon. Crimson Advocate began to edge closer to the leader upon settling into the stretch, overtook the tiring Esperon near midstretch before edging clear at the end. Reef Runner, a well-graded allowance winner in his only previous start on grass, was outrun to the stretch before finishing best of all down the center of the strip while never seriously menacing the winner at the end. Sir Flash was third. Crimson Advocate is the last horse allowed to run in Weaver’s name after he began a provisional suspension for a Metformin positive handed out by HIWU. Crimson Advocate, a 3-year-old daughter of Nyquist, completed the distance over a firm course in 54.77 seconds and paid $4.00. “We had a messed up season with her so far,” Weaver explained when contacted shortly after the race. “She was supposed to run here a couple of months ago, the race came off the turf, and we didn’t want to experiment.  There was a race two weeks later in Kentucky, we sent her up there, it also came off the turf, so we brought her back. I was going to send her back for the Mamzelle at Churchill, but she had a little leg infection we had to get cleared up.  This is where we ended up.” Weaver said he was extremely pleased with Crimson Advocate’s performance, especially in light of her compromised start. “She kind of lost her footing after the start and had to gather herself back up,” Weaver said. “Right down the backside I said this is good. We need to know. Whenever you have a speed horse, sometimes when you’re under pressure it doesn’t work. But she tracked that other horse and got the job done in race-horse time. Now they (the owners) want to take her back to Ascot, so this should set her up for it.”   Bethany Baumgardner posted the first win of her training career and did so in style when sending out Ocean Club to a popular, one-length victory over longshot Towser in the Monroe. Ocean Club, a 4-year-old Glen Hill Farm homebred by Curlin, came into the 1 1/16-mile Monroe off a 3 1/4-length high-priced optional claiming and allowance win over the Tapeta strip here on March 23. She was transferred from her former trainer Tom Proctor to Baumgardner, who recently became trainer of record for all the South Florida-based horses owned by Glen Hill Farm, subsequent to that outing. With her regular rider Gonzalez aboard again, Ocean Club sat a  perfect stalking trip behind the pace-setting Thirty Thou Kelvin, moved readily to command midway on the second turn, settled into the stretch with a comfortable advantage, then withstood a final bid from Towsor. The latter finished two lengths clear of stablemate Angel Nadeshko to be second-best; both fillies are from the barn of leading trainer Saffie Joseph Jr.  Ocean Club, who ran second in the Grade 2 San Clemente over the Del Mar turf last summer for Proctor, paid $6.00. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.