Friday card one for the ladies
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Friday is Ladies’ Day at Gulfstream Park, although not in an official sense. Eight of the 11 races on a program that starts at 12:35 p.m. Eastern are restricted to fillies and mares, including all four allowances.
Coincidence or not, there’s a good day of racing ahead, especially where those allowances are concerned. Their purses range from $48,000 to $50,000, and three of the four are part of the Rainbow 6 (races 6-11), which had another burgeoning rollover jackpot ($134,347) when a five-day race week got under way here Wednesday.
Here’s a rundown of the Friday allowances:
Race 5: A couple of 5-year-old mares returning from layoffs of several months figure to vie for favoritism in this first-level race at seven furlongs on the main track: Conquest Superstep, with Joel Rosario riding for trainer Mark Casse, and Pawleys Express, with John Velazquez aboard for Ralph Nicks.
Nicks also is the trainer of Crowning Affair, who stands to benefit from a Jan. 12 outing at this same level, her first start in about two months.
Race 8: Scuba Sue and Eila, the one-two finishers in a key Jan. 5 turf sprint with these same first-level conditions, renew their rivalry amid a contentious group that also includes Crazy About Jazz, a maiden winner last out for trainer Christophe Clement, and Glass House, a beaten favorite in her first start in more than nine months.
“She bounced out of her comeback really well,” said Wesley Ward, the trainer of Glass House.
Race 9: Casse has contenders in this third-level turf race at 7 1/2 furlongs with the uncoupled pair of Mississippi Delta, the winner of a $278,000 Kentucky Downs stakes three starts back, and Frosty Friday, who was scratched from the recent Endeavour at Tampa Bay Downs to wait for this less-demanding spot.
Other notables in a deep lineup include Moon River, stretching out for trainer Graham Motion; E B Ryder, making a rare foray outside the stakes ranks for trainer Marty Wolfson; and Peru, a winner of her Stateside debut last month for Clement.
Race 10: Tale for Ruby, the winner of an ungraded Laurel Park stakes to end her 2016 campaign, disappointed as an odds-on favorite in a similar second-level race on the main track in her return to Gulfstream last month. Trained by Barclay Tagg, she’ll have a chance to make amends when part of a well-matched field that includes Shaan, Meadow Rose, and Top Decile as logical challengers.
The only in-the-money finish in five starts for Top Decile since she finished second to Take Charge Brandi in the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies was a victory last October over the Woodbine synthetic surface.