Grey Stark getting started in Saturday turf feature

OLDSMAR, Fla. – With a $485,000 price tag come big expectations, and, at age 4, Grey Stark still has time to live up to them. The filly will make her first start of the year and her first for trainer Jonathan Thomas at Tampa Bay Downs on Saturday in the featured fifth race, an optional $62,500 claimer going one mile on the turf course.

Thomas said he hopes to use the race, the shortest of the filly’s career, as a prep for stakes later this spring and summer. Grey Stark has run in two stakes races, finishing fourth in the Wonder Again at Belmont last June and eighth in the Winter Memories at Aqueduct in her most recent start in November.

“More or less, we’re just looking for a good outing, not necessarily like a must-win situation, but just to get a good little run under our belt and see where it takes us,” Thomas said. “She’s a big, beautiful filly, and ultimately getting some black type is the objective.”

Grey Stark, sold at Keeneland as a yearling, has made eight starts, the fewest in the field of six older fillies and mares competing for a $24,500 purse. Owned by Robert La Penta, the Tapit filly spent her first two seasons with trainer Chad Brown in New York, running mostly in turf races ranging in distance from 1 1/16 miles to 1 1/2 miles.

“It’s probably a little bit shorter than ideal for her, but it’s just a starting-out point,” Thomas said.

Key Contenders, Race 5
Grey Stark, by Tapit
Last 3 Beyers: 83-89-86
• She shows three recent breezes at Bridlewood Farm in Ocala, Fla., for her return and drew the rail under jockey Pablo Morales, who is having a strong meet with 66 wins from 322 mounts (20 percent). She was ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr. in all of her prior races, including a 3 1/4-length score in a turf allowance at Belmont Park in October at just about even money.

Laur Net, by Strong Hope
Last 3 Beyers: 89-79-67
• Starts for the first time since Jan. 8, when she finished a close fourth here to Light In Paris, a Brown trainee who won the Plenty of Grace Stakes at Aqueduct last Saturday. She’s turned in four works here since then, including a stamina-building mile in 1:46 on April 9.

America Mon Amie, by All American
Last 3 Beyers: 79-62-77
• A stakes winner at Canterbury Park in 2015, she will be making her first start since beating fellow Illinois-breds on the Hawthorne turf last October. The bullet half-mile in 48 seconds here last Monday signals her readiness.