HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With her only two setbacks in four starts coming against graded stakes competition, Flakes figures to be the public’s choice when returning to allowance company and taking on five other 3-year-old fillies, including the very promising maiden winners Imonra and Party Favor, in Friday’s $51,000 main event going a mile at Gulfstream Park. Flakes showed plenty of talent right from the start, launching her career with a come-from-behind three-length maiden special weight victory on Dec. 30. After finishing a distant sixth following a sluggish start when making her 3-year-old debut in the Grade 3 Forward Gal, Flakes rebounded nicely, winning a key Florida-bred entry-level allowance dash just 18 days later with a career high 78 Beyer Speed Figure. The performance was flattered when both the second- and third-place finishers in the race, Sherlyn Go Go and The Mrs, registered statebred allowance wins of their own in their subsequent starts. Flakes was rewarded for that effort with another shot at graded stakes company. Stepping up and stretching out around two turns for the first time, she finished a solid third, beaten just two lengths by Affirmative Lady, after setting a contested pace in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks. She has trained steadily and forwardly for her return with a half dozen works on her résumé since the Oaks, including a bullet five furlongs in 59.40 on May 7. :: Take your handicapping to the next level and play with FREE DRF Past Performances - Formulator or Classic.  Flakes is owned by the BC Racing stable of Brian Cohen, the son of her breeder, Arindel’s Alan Cohen, who bought eight horses of his own at the 2022 OBS sales, including this filly after she failed to meet the $50,000 RNA price last April. “I thought about sending her to Pimlico last week for the Black-Eyed Susan but it looked like it was going to be a big field so we decided to pick the right spot, try to win another race here, then look for a graded stakes after that,” Cohen said. “She’s really doing well and I think the mile distance is good for her. This race isn’t a gimme by any means with Imonra and Party Favor in the field, but I’m pretty confident she can win, and if she does, a race like the Delaware Oaks on July 1 might be the next option for her. “We won a race on the [Delaware] Oaks card last year [Key Biscayne in the Grade 3 Robert G. Dick Memorial] and hopefully we can go back and have similar success with her up there this summer.” Flakes is one of two horses trainer Juan Alvarado entered in the feature along with her fellow Arindel homebred Shiloh, who is still a maiden and has been idle since finishing a distant fifth in the Susan’s Girl Stakes eight months ago. Imonra tries allowance competition for the first time while exiting an 11 3/4-length maiden victory on April 27 in which she earned a career best 79 Beyer Speed Figure at the same one-mile distance as Friday’s race. A Peter Vegso homebred, Imonra is by Violence out of the stakes-winning mare Light Bringer and hails from the barn of leading trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. :: Get Daily Racing Form Past Performances – the exclusive home of Beyer Speed Figures Party Favor, a nicely bred daughter of Practical Joke who fetched $520,000 as a yearling at the 2021 Keeneland September sale, was bet to 3-2 at first asking and ran to her backing. She stalked the early pace going six furlongs before pulling away to an easy 6 1/4-length triumph for trainer Todd Pletcher. Kikilove is the only four-time winner in the lineup and enters the race sporting a modest two-race win streak, with both of the victories coming at seven furlongs. Kikilove is trained by Rohan Crichton, who also entered the lightly raced maiden Princess Tenko to help fill out the six-horse lineup. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.