Great Venezuela, a 4-year-old filly trained by Victor Barboza Jr., has won five of her last six starts and will be the likely favorite in the $70,000 Golden Beach on Sunday at Gulfstream Park. The overnight handicap will be run at five furlongs on turf, an ideal spot for the stakes winner who has big plans this season. “The principal plan for the last month was to go to New York, but she’s Florida-bred, and the owners told me they preferred to not move her now,” Barboza said. “They preferred to run her at Gulfstream.” A seven-time winner in 10 career starts, Great Venezuela won her first stakes race in February, pulling away with authority to take the $125,000 Lightning City at Tampa Bay Downs by two lengths. Barboza gave her a short rest coming out of that race to prepare her for an ambitious 2025 campaign. A pair of overnight handicaps will keep the Florida-bred star in her home state for now, but the filly could soon leave for deeper waters. The new plan is for her to run in the Golden Beach this weekend and the $70,000 Lady’s Island on May 25 at Gulfstream, at which point Barboza intends to ship her north to target races at Monmouth Park and Saratoga. After beginning her career on the synthetic, Barboza has gradually shifted her to this five-furlong distance on turf, where she has now earned two commanding victories. Her only recent defeat came at a mile, a runner-up finish in the statebred Sunshine Filly and Mare Turf. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. In the Lightning City, the speedy filly showed a new dimension when she settled back and closed from seventh to pull away in the stretch. Three horses in Sunday’s field of eight finished far behind her that day. “The perfect distance for her is five or six furlongs,” Barboza said. “The mile isn’t bad, but it’s not the best distance for her.” Barboza also entered the 4-year-old filly Tiffany Gold in the Golden Beach. She will break just outside of her stablemate, who has the rail post. The consistent sprinter broke through to win a $78,000 allowance last time out, encouraging Barboza to enter her alongside her more accomplished stablemate. Great Venezuela may be the primary threat on Sunday, but lightly raced Mrs. Gambolini could make a race of it in her 4-year-old debut for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. In her last start in November, she returned to Gulfstream for a turf-sprint allowance and crushed a field of older female runners by 4 3/4 lengths. Joseph’s flashy upstart earned an 89 Beyer Speed Figure for that performance, matching the figure she received when winning her maiden on synthetic. The only blip in her three-race career was a fourth-place finish in a longer sprint at Kentucky Downs. Now a 4-year-old returning to comfortable conditions, she could come back stronger Sunday but will have to fire fresh off a layoff of nearly six months. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.