Gulfstream sprint may be too short for Madame Giry

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – There are two things a bettor can usually count on when the well-traveled Madame Giry comes to town. She’s always going to run her race, but she’s probably not going to make anyone rich if she wins.

Madame Giry will make her 19th career start and her third over the Gulfstream turf course as the likely favorite in Sunday’s $75,000 Safari Queen, scheduled at five furlongs on turf. The outing will be the first for Madame Giry since she finished a troubled fourth as the 9-5 favorite in the five-furlong Lightning City Stakes on Jan. 25 at Tampa Bay Downs.

“We had some issues with her,” said trainer Cam Gambolati. “She tied up on me and wasn’t doing well. She wasn’t at the top of her game. We just gave her a little break. It was just muscular, and she’s back and training great.”

The main obstacle to Madame Giry getting her eighth career victory, aside from a forecast that calls for rain, which could force the Safari Queen to be moved to the main track, is the distance. Although she is a turf-sprint specialist, the late-running Madame Giry is better suited to 5 1/2 and six furlongs than five-eighths.

“There’s a big difference between 5 1/2 furlongs and five-eighths,” Gambolati said. “She can run out of ground. You have to be a little more aggressive with her. You have to get her into the race. When she loses, there’s usually an excuse. She tries every time, that’s the bottom line.”

Madame Giry may have to run down What a Party if she’s going to notch her first victory since Sept. 21 at Laurel Park. What a Party makes her stakes debut off a wire-to-wire, neck victory in a midlevel optional-claiming sprint Feb. 17. The win was the third in the last four turf-sprint outings for What a Party dating to August at Monmouth Park.

Angel’s South, third in the one-mile Ten Palms Stakes, will turn back to five furlongs for the first time. Other contenders include Coarsegold, Claiming Victory, and Satan’s Mistress

Apriority, Narvaez seek to rebound

Sunday’s card includes a second-level optional $62,500 claiming race that drew a stakes-caliber field of six, topped by Apriority and Narvaez.

Apriority is trying to regain the form that saw him win a similar sprint by five lengths here in November. A graded stakes winner, he is coming off a sixth-place finish in the rapidly run Sir Shackleton on March 29.

Narvaez finished second at odds of 139-1 in the Grade 3 Gulfstream Park Sprint earlier in the meet. He was a bit overmatched when he returned against the likes of Palace Malice and Golden Ticket and finished fifth in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap in his most recent start.

◗ The season’s first race for 2-year-olds was won by trainer Wesley Ward with the 1-2 favorite Golden Sorrow, who was all out to withstand a late surge from the 30-1 Rex’s Comprise in Friday’s third race. Golden Sorrow, who is also owned by Ward, is by Bring the Heat and a full sister to Skylander, who won his 2-year-old debut at Keeneland by nine lengths two years ago.

◗ Kevin Krigger has moved his tack locally to ride for Rasham Creque, who took over as trainer for owner Frank Calabrese’s large stable this month. Krigger and Creque both began their racing careers in the Virgin Islands and have had considerable success together over the years both at home and since coming to the United States.