Gulfstream Park: Sr. Quisqueyano tries something new in Showing Up

There will be stakes action aplenty on the embattled south Florida circuit Saturday. Four stakes races, valued at $75,000 apiece, will be decided, one at Gulfstream Park and three others just eight miles down the road at Calder, which features the opening two legs of the 2013 Florida Stallion Stakes series.

Sr. Quisqueyano is far and away the class of the field in the Showing Up Stakes at Gulfstream. The Showing Up, however, is scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the turf, a surface Sr. Quisqueyano has yet to try in a dozen career starts.

The Showing Up lured a field of eight 3-year-olds, the majority of whom have either none or very limited stakes experience. Sr. Quisqueyano, on the other hand, is already a two-time stakes winner, and in his most recent start placed in a graded stakes for the first time by finishing third in Calder’s Grade 3 Carry Back.

Sr. Quisqueyano has only modest breeding for the grass, being by Exclusive Quality out of a mare, Royal Navy, who finished off the board in her only start on grass and whose two previous foals have yet to run on turf.

Should the Showing Up go as scheduled, Dr. Chase may be a sleeper. The son of Tiz Wonderful finished a creditable fourth after contesting the early pace over yielding ground making both his two-turn and grass debut against older horses June 29. He also looked very sharp blowing out three-eighths twice within a four-day span over the main track earlier this month.

Backseat Memories had his three-race win streak snapped when finishing eighth, 2 1/2 lengths behind Dr. Chase, in a strong field of older runners in his last start. Backseat Memories, haltered for $25,000 this winter at Gulfstream, rallied from the rear of the pack to win the Mambo Meister overnight stakes at Calder on May 12.

Boy of Summer has sandwiched a pair of grass wins around a disappointing effort in the Mambo Meister, the first of those victories coming in a restricted stakes for 3-year-olds at Tampa and the most recent against older runners at Calder on June 22.