Female turf stakes come up solid

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The ladies will get their turns Saturday at Gulfstream Park. Aside from the Davona Dale, which is a Kentucky Oaks qualifier, three other graded stakes restricted to female runners will serve as secondary features on a spectacular 14-race card culminating with the Fountain of Youth Stakes.

Here’s a quick look at each of those supporting events, all of them Grade 3, $150,000 turf races:

Herecomesthebride (race 9)

Stakes opportunities abound for young turf fillies throughout the four-month Gulfstream championship meet. The 1 1/16-mile Herecomesthebride is the fourth of five such races for fillies who turned 3 with the calendar change, and so far Cheermeister is the unofficial MVP of the series. She’s won two of the three races and will maintain her perfect-attendance record Saturday when Emisael Jaramillo climbs back aboard.

“She’s ready and she’s happy,” said Armando De La Cerda, who trains the speedy daughter of Bodemeister for David and Teresa Palmer.

On Thursday morning, De La Cerda said, “she was bucking and kicking.”

“This is the farthest she’s gone, but I think she can handle it,” he said.

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Cheermeister sandwiched front-running wins in the Nov. 30 Wait a While and Feb. 1 Sweetest Chant around a 10th-place clunker in the Jan. 4 Ginger Brew, when she banged her head while breaking through the starting gate and had to be reloaded.

“She didn’t feel too good after that, I don’t think,” said De La Cerda.

Probably the top threat to Cheermeister is Abscond, whose record might be enough to make her a slight favorite in a field of 12. Abscond won a head bob in the Natalma last September at Woodbine to become a Grade 1 winner with a 74 Beyer Speed Figure, and although her subsequent form is not overpowering, the Blame filly clearly fits the spot.

“It looks like a competitive race, but we think she’ll run her race and be right there,” said trainer Eddie Kenneally. “She really is doing great.”

Fringe contenders in this opening leg to the 20-cent Rainbow 6 (races 9-14) include In a Hurry and Stunning Sky, both last-out allowance winners over the local course.

The final stakes of the meet in this division is the Sanibel Island on the March 28 Florida Derby card.

The Very One (race 7)

It was five Saturdays ago that Graham Motion watched in delight when Mean Mary thoroughly dominated the 1 1/2-mile La Prevoyante over the Gulfstream turf.

The 32nd The Very One is a somewhat similar race, at 1 3/16 miles on the turf, but none of the three Motion trainees in the field of 12 fillies and mares is Mean Mary.

“I’m waiting for Keeneland with her,” he said.

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Still, Motion seems to stand as good a chance as anyone with Empressof the Nile, Touriga, and Queen of Time. Empressof the Nile, fifth in a blanket finish in the Long Island at Aqueduct in late November, could wind up the shortest price of the three.

“She wasn’t beaten that far in her last race, and she’s doing well after I gave her a bit of a freshening,” said Motion. “She might be good in there if she comes back to her form.”

Touriga, he added, “didn’t get the best of trips” before rallying mildly to be third behind Mean Mary in the La Prevoyante, while Queen of Time, a British-bred mare making her North American debut, “is a bit of an unknown,” he said.

“She’s done well in her training, but she might find Gulfstream a bit fast for her,” said Motion. “She may be more of a mile-and-a-half horse.”

Others in a deep lineup likely to attract their fair share of tote action are Ferdinanda, Cap de Creus, Lemon Zip, Romantic Pursuit, and Raining Lemons.

Honey Fox (race 5)

Clearly the most accomplished performer in a field of 11 fillies and mares is Valedictorian, whose class and consistency have resulted in 22 in-the-money finishes from 30 starts and a field-high $708,765 bankroll. Her record over the Gulfstream turf is four wins among eight in-the-money finishes in 11 starts, including victories here last winter in the Grade 3 Suwannee River and the Sand Springs.

Still, there’s the question of recency – which trainer Kelly Breen is quick to wave off. Valedictorian, with Paco Lopez riding, will break from the outside post in this one-mile race when she makes her first start in more than five months. The 6-year-old New Jersey-bred has had seven breezes at Palm Meadows since early January.

“She’s coming back strong,” said Breen. “Paco has been working her and she looks fabulous.”

A bright new face in this niche of the filly-mare turf division is Atomic Blonde, a Todd Pletcher trainee entered off a perfect-trip triumph in the South Beach on the Jan. 25 Pegasus card. The 4-year-old filly by the late Scat Daddy has made an admirable progression through five career starts and comes well drawn here with Javier Castellano back to ride from post 2.