Easy Come Easy Go, Bluefield meet following career-best efforts

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Easy Come Easy Go and Bluefield, both coming off far and away the best races of their careers after switching barns, will try to replicate those performances when stepping up against tougher competition in Friday’s $72,000 main event at Gulfstream Park.

The seven-furlong test for fillies and mares, the first of two allowance races on a card that also includes a one-mile turf race restricted to Florida-bred fillies and mares, drew a field of seven that features likely favorite Favor.

Easy Come Easy Go was haltered for $35,000 out of a winning effort Aug. 7 by trainer Renaldo Richards, who gave the 3-year-old filly plenty of time to get acclimated to her new home before wheeling her back against optional-claiming and allowance foes 10 weeks later. The improving filly responding with a one-length victory over the 6-5 Poiema for which she received an 83 Beyer Speed Figure, 15 points higher than her previous best registered eight months earlier.

Easy Come Easy Go, who has won two of her three starts at seven furlongs, has worked twice since her last outing. She zipped a bullet three-eighths in 35.60 seconds here last Friday, then galloped out an additional quarter-mile in smart fashion with regular rider Miguel Vasquez aboard.

“She’s a small filly, so I just took my time with her, like I do with everything we claim,” said Richards, who currently has 18 horses bedded down locally. “She gained some weight and was training super good going into her last race. I expected her to run her career-best race the way she had been performing in the morning. She’s continued to do well ever since, and I expect her to run even better Friday than she did last time. I know it’s a step up, but I think she’s as capable as anyone in the field, especially at this distance.”

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The more seasoned Bluefield had won five of a dozen career starts before going to the sidelines at the end of her 2021 campaign. She finally returned nine months later with a new trainer, Saffie Joseph Jr., who sent the 6-year-old out to capture her local debut in impressive fashion, by five widening lengths, against similar optional-claiming and allowance company as Easy Come Easy Go defeated in her last start. Bluefield was awarded an 85 Beyer for her effort, a career best by 10 points. She will have to answer a distance question, having registered all six of her lifetime victories going six panels or less.

Favor returns to the allowance ranks for the first time since registering a 4 1/4-length allowance win at the direct expense of Easy Come Easy Go when the pair met going one mile here in February. Trained by Todd Pletcher, Favor became graded stakes-placed in her next start when finishing third in the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks but has been away since checking home fifth in the restricted Wilton Stakes on July 14 at Saratoga.

Quinoa Tifah, Starship Nala, Sonar, and Don’t Get Khozy, who finished second, fourth, fifth, and sixth, respectively, behind the even-money and once-beaten Maryquitecontrary in a seven-furlong overnight handicap on Oct. 16, complete the field.

Quinoa Tifah won this same condition going six furlongs as a 3-year-old in 2021 and is one of two horses trainer Juan Alvarado entered in the race along with Sonar.

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