Difficult to separate contenders from pretenders in Inside Information

What’s the chance Jakarta was a dirt horse all along? She certainly gave that impression last time out, when in her first start on dirt in 18 months she earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure with a runaway victory in a listed stakes race at Parx.

Whether that was a fluke, or an overdue realization of what was laying under the surface all this time, will be solidified on Saturday at Gulfstream Park. Jakarta, at the ripe old age of 7 and in her 28th start, looks to annex her first graded stakes in the Grade 2, $200,000 Inside Information for older female sprinters going seven furlongs.

The Inside Information, race 8 on the 12-race card, drew a field of 10. It is the opening leg of a late pick five that has a guaranteed pool of $750,000.

Jakarta was transferred to trainer Michael Trombetta before her last start. He took a look at her record – 3 for 15 on turf and synthetic, 5 for 11 on dirt – and thought a move back to dirt might be appropriate. Still, most of her dirt races occurred before she got good enough to face the likes of Got Stormy on turf, so Trombetta admits, “I didn’t know what to expect.”

“I’d only had her for a couple of works. She drew the one hole,” Trombetta said. “But she broke sharp, went to running, and ran huge.”

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Indeed, her 93 Beyer is the best last-out fig in the field.

There is plenty of speed in this race – much of it, like A G Indy and Dance d’Oro, drawn to Jakarta’s inside – so she’ll have to earn it.

Just One Time, drawn just outside Jakarta, figures to trip out well, but she too is facing far tougher. She makes her first start for trainer Brad Cox after five races, the last two at Penn National, where she earned Beyer Figures of 90 and 96 with runaway scores.

“She’s given me enough confidence to put her on a van and bring her here,” Cox said from Gulfstream. “She’s never gone seven-eighths, but she races like she can go seven-eighths, and she’s trained extremely well.”

Joel Rosario, who rides Knicks Go for Cox in the Pegasus World Cup later on the card, has the mount.

Pacific Gale will try to turn back the clock and pull off another upset after winning this race at 16-1 last year, breaking a 17-race losing streak. She enters this race – the last of her career – with a five-race losing streak.

Four Graces, whose career has been interrupted by absences that have limited her to two starts since October 2020, is a major player if she can get back to her 2020 form, which saw her win the Grade 3 Dogwood and Beaumont, and finish second in the Grade 2 Eight Belles, all at or about seven furlongs.

A G Indy, largely a turf runner in California, makes her first start for Todd Pletcher after a private purchase. Pletcher said A G Indy worked well in company last Saturday at Palm Beach Downs with Fearless, who runs in the Grade 3 Hooper later in the day.