Dyna Passer follows in sibling's shoes, tries a marathon

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A $51,000 optional claimer highlights the Sunday action at Gulfstream Park, where a nine-race card will start at 1 p.m. Eastern.

The nominal race-8 feature is a 1 1/2-mile turf race that drew eight older fillies and mares, with Dyna Passer likely to be favored following a fourth-place finish in her return to action last month.

Bred and owned by the Woodslane Farm of Rene and Lauren Woolcott, Dyna Passer ended her 3-year-old season with solid efforts in back-to-back stakes on the Belmont turf, giving trainer Tom Albertrani optimism for what might lie ahead.

“She can run all day,” said Albertani, noting the Lemon Drop Kid filly is a half-sister to Sadler’s Joy, a Woodslane homebred with more than $2.5 million in career earnings.

The Feb. 23 comeback came at 1 3/16 miles, and now with the added distance, Dyna Passer can further lengthen her stride. She appears to have two other New York mainstays On the Town and Whatdoesasharksay as her main rivals. Both of those 4-year-old fillies exit the same Jan. 30 race over the Gulfstream turf in the lone appearances of their Florida winter, with On the Town running fifth for Mark Hennig and Whatdoesasharksay 10th for Jimmy Toner.

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Javier Castellano has the call from Albertrani on Dyna Passer, who will break from post 5 before negotiating the three-turn distance.

Irad Ortiz Jr., the 2018-19 Eclipse Award winning jockey who leads the current championship meet with 115 wins, was not named to ride the feature, although he was named on numerous other mounts on the Sunday card. However, Ortiz announced Thursday night through his Twitter account that he is finished riding until further notice because of the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

“Hopefully we can all make it safely out of this quarantine sooner than later and get back to what we all love,” he wrote.

Ortiz’s decision was a contributing factor in Gulfstream officials deciding to cancel its 10-race Friday card. Racing was scheduled to resume Saturday with even stricter precautions being implemented at the track, where only limited personnel is being permitted on-site. Other East Coast tracks such as Aqueduct, Laurel, and Parx have suspended racing indefinitely.

The Sunday forecast calls for sunny skies and a high of 82. Another five-day race week at Gulfstream is scheduled to begin Wednesday.