Fulminate can win off Crichton claim
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – They saved the best for last Thursday at Gulfstream Park, where a nine-race program will end with the deepest race and the biggest purse.
It’s the nightcap of a program that starts at 12:40 p.m. Eastern, a new first post adjusted for longer daylight hours. Race 9 is set for 4:36 with Florida-bred fillies and mares competing for a $54,000 purse and under hybrid conditions of a first-level allowance and a $20,000 claiming option. The 12-horse maximum is entered, but at least one of them, Musical Design, “probably is coming out,” her trainer, Wesley Ward, said Monday.
With that, Fulminate probably will be favored in the five-furlong race, one of three on the card scheduled for a turf course that most likely will be firm, given a continuing forecast of warm and dry conditions in this region. Fulminate, by Get Stormy, most recently was second in a similar type of race Jan. 15, when she was claimed by Rohan Crichton for $25,000.
Three timed workouts at the Palm Meadows training center have ensued for Crichton, whose seven winners in a four-week span (Feb. 5 to March 5) have mitigated what was an uncharacteristically slow start for the Jamaica native at the Championship meet.
Fulminate, with Luis Saez riding, will break from post 9 when having Veloce Bella, Speed Salsa, Baby Steps, and Golden Isle as her chief opposition. There’s a ton of speed signed on, so maybe Speed Salsa, turning back from longer races, could capitalize if a ruinous pace unfolds.
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The nominal feature is the last leg of the 20-cent Rainbow 6 (races 4-9), which had its jackpot emptied Sunday by a forceout that drew more than $5.2 million in new handle. Each winning 20-cent ticket returned $40,357.
‘Rockette’ a big favorite
Frank’s Rockette, the standout 6-year-old with triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures in four of her last five starts, figures as a heavy favorite for Bill Mott when returning to action in the first of two filly-mare stakes this weekend at Gulfstream.
Frank’s Rockette will face just five others in the Grade 3, $125,000 Hurricane Bertie, the eighth of 12 Saturday races. With Junior Alvarado back to ride, she’ll be looking to duplicate her last-out victory here in the Grade 3 Sugar Swirl, a Dec. 31 race she won by 12 lengths with a 105 Beyer.
The $100,000 Captiva Island, a five-furlong turf dash, will be run some 90 minutes later as the 11th race. Train to Artemus, an odds-on winner of the Lightning City at Tampa last month for Kelly Breen, looks like a deserving favorite in a field of 10.
◗ White Abarrio, the 2022 Florida Derby winner who earned a career-high 103 Beyer in winning a seven-furlong allowance here Saturday, will be pointed to the Grade 1 Carter at Aqueduct going the same distance April 8, trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said.
“It was great to see that huge effort from him,” Joseph said.
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