Far Bridge looks to keep perfect Gulfstream record intact in Pan Am
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HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Far Bridge has raced for three seasons, each one beginning with a narrow victory at Gulfstream Park.
A multiple Grade 1 winner and earner of $2.4 million, Far Bridge is back for a fourth season. Naturally, it begins with a start at Gulfstream Park in the Grade 3, $225,000 Pan American Stakes, the same race he won last year by a neck. Far Bridge is 4 for 4 at Gulfstream, having begun his career with two wins there in 2023.
Far Bridge won three of his first four starts in 2025, missing the Grade 1 Manhattan by a neck to stablemate Deterministic, before going off form. Trainer Miguel Clement said Far Bridge may have run “one race too many,” and Clement stopped on him following his fourth-place finish in the five-horse, Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic last September.
Thus, Far Bridge has had more time off than he did when he won last year’s Pan Am by a neck over Corruption, one of his nine rivals on Saturday. Perhaps that and the fact he is now 6 could mean Far Bridge may need this race to shake off the rust.
“He is one year older. In terms of preparation, it’s been spot on. Whether he’ll need a race, I’m dubious,” Clement said. “He looks great. It’s time to run.”
Flavien Prat will ride Far Bridge for the first time, a fact that will likely lower his odds.
Dashman, who in 2024 won the Grade 3 William McKnight at the Pan Am distance of 1 1/2 miles, returned off a six-month layoff with a fourth-place finish in a conditioned allowance race going 1 1/16 miles here on Feb. 28. That effort, trainer Brian Lynch hopes, plus the return to 12 furlongs could have Dashman ready for a top effort.
“He needed his last race. It was a prep for this,” said Lynch, who leads all trainers at Gulfstream’s winter meet with nine stakes wins. “He’s worked solid in between. He wants to run this far. I’m really happy with the way he’s coming into the race.”
Joel Rosario, who had ridden Far Bridge in his last nine starts, rides Dashman.
Corruption tried to wire the field from the rail in last year’s Pan Am only to be outfinished by Far Bridge. He will likely try to wire the field when he returns from a November layoff and breaks from the rail under John Velazquez.
Echo Lane, coming off a runner-up finish behind Grand Sonata in the Grade 2 Mac Diarmida last month, figures to be forward under Edwin Gonzalez for Rohan Crichton.
Orchid
Just Basking and Speed Shopper have won the last two marathon turf stakes run at this meet, and they’ll face each other for the first time in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Orchid Stakes at 1 1/2 miles.
Speed Shopper comes in off a 1 3/4-length victory in the Christophe Clement Stakes on Jan. 31. Trainer Will Walden was considering pointing to the Bewitch at Keeneland on April 24, but when he began working the filly at the beginning of the month, he decided he didn’t need to wait to run her back.
“Her first breeze was good, her second was better, and her third was very good,” Walden said. “When it was coming up a short field, we had a responsibility to run in a graded stakes at a track and over a distance she won. She’s doing well. It’d be foolish not to go in there.”
Just Basking roared from off the pace to win the Grade 3 The Very One at 13-1 odds four weeks ago. Like Walden, trainer Ian Wilkes seemed to have the Bewitch at Keeneland on his radar, and still does, but he said his filly was doing too well to skip this spot.
Though Just Basking may not get the pace that she did in the 1 3/8-mile The Very One, Wilkes said he’s not concerned.
“I think she’ll be closer. I’m not worried about that,” he said. “She has her own running style.”
Ayra Stark set the pace in the Clement and finished second. She also finished second to Speed Shopper in the Florence Stakes at Turfway in December.
Bellezza, a two-time graded stakes winner last year for Miguel Clement, makes her first start since a sixth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. She is a late-running sort who may be compromised by pace, as well as the 1 1/2-mile distance.
Last year, Bellezza came off a layoff to win the Grade 3, 1 3/8-mile Sheepshead Bay at 10-1 at Aqueduct.
“The distance is a little bit more of a question mark and she has one less work this season than she did last season,” Clement said. “She’s drawn on the outside. Mr. Flavien Prat will have to figure it out, but she’s training very well.”
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