Gulfstream Park: Groupie Doll unlikely for weekend stakes

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Groupie Doll is nominated to both the six-furlong Sugar Swirl and 7 1/2-furlong South Beach on the turf this weekend. But trainer Buff Bradley said the Grade 3 winner is not likely to run in either spot, even after she worked a sharp five furlongs in 59 seconds under exercise rider Jose Garcia here Tuesday.

“I might enter her for dirt only in the South Beach, but she definitely won’t go in the Sugar Swirl,” Bradley said. “She’s ready now, but we’re not going to run her three-quarters. I’ll probably just wait and go into an allowance race with her next week, and Calvin Borel will be here to ride her.”

Groupie Doll is coming off a seventh-place finish on the turf in the Grade 2 Mrs. Revere at Churchill Downs, falling far back early before making a belated rally through the stretch.

“She can run on the grass, she just didn’t have a very good trip last time,” Bradley said. “She was too far back. It wasn’t the surface that bothered her, it was just the way the race set up.”

Groupie Doll won the Grade 3 Gardenia going a mile this summer at Ellis Park.