Gun Song should finally get fast track in allowance

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A pair of promising 3-year-old fillies with possible designs on the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks at the end of the meet, Gun Song and Catherine Wheel, will take center stage in the first of two allowance races that highlight Friday’s nine-race program at Gulfstream Park.

Gun Song and Catherine Wheel will face five rivals going a mile under first-level allowance conditions and perhaps vie for the major shares of a $91,000 purse in the afternoon’s seventh race. That race will be followed by a five-furlong, $92,000 allowance and optional-claiming dash on the turf that lured a wide-open field of nine fillies and mares topped by the once-beaten Ivory Moon, multiple stakes winner Sugar Fix, and super consistent Run for the Hills.

Gun Song will stretch out to a mile for the first time after finishing second going seven furlongs under similar conditions here Jan. 11 when extending the undefeated, 1-5 Leslie’s Rose until deep stretch before coming out second best in a very game effort in her 3-year-old debut. Gun Song has made all three of her previous starts over wet tracks, including a hard-fought neck win in her career debut last fall at Aqueduct. She is likely to finally get her first opportunity on a fast surface Friday.

“We were kind of puzzled by her second race” – a third at even money – “but she came out of it with a bit of a foot bruise,” trainer Mark Hennig said. “I was hoping that was the excuse and I was very pleased she came back and gave such a good account of herself last time. Her mother was a sprinter, but she is a Gun Runner and doesn’t look like a sprinter at all, so I’m optimistic she’ll get a mile. I think she will run on anything, although it will also be nice to have a fast track for a change.”

As for whether he’s entertaining any thoughts of the 1 1/16-mile Gulfstream Park Oaks, Hennig replied, “I’m just taking it one furlong at a time for now.”

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Catherine Wheel already is a proven commodity at the distance, having earned her diploma going a mile at Aqueduct in her 2-year-old finale on Nov. 3. She prompted the early pace before edging away to a popular 2 3/4-length victory for which she received a career-best 75 Beyer Speed Figure.

Trained by Chad Brown, Catherine Wheel kept and held her own with some pretty talented company last season, having finished third, beaten less than a length by Candied, when launching her career at Saratoga. Candied subsequently won the Grade 1 Alcibiades and finished third, beaten only three-quarters of a length by Just F Y I, in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

For those looking for options other than the two favorites, Wee Bit O Mischief might fit the bill. She won her maiden at a mile in her penultimate start at 2 before closing the year finishing a late-running third in a pretty salty allowance race from which the top two finishers, Ice Cold and Denim and Pearls, returned to run one-two in that order in Oaklawn Park’s Year’s End Stakes on New Year’s Eve.

Ivory Moon will look to continue her winning ways when stepping up in company in the co-featured eighth race. Ivory Moon has used her blazing speed to capture two of her three career starts, including a first-level allowance and optional-claiming dash over the turf here Jan. 13 for which she received a career-best 83 Beyer Speed Figure. Speed is her major asset, although the daughter of Ransom the Moon may find herself tested from the outset by a pair of fillies, Future Is Now and Cousin Kristi, breaking to her inside.

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The veteran Sugar Fix will probably need all the early help she can get turning back to five furlongs while returning to the races for the first time since finishing third in the one-mile Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf nearly a year ago. Now 7, Sugar Fix has captured 11 of 33 previous starts but is winless since being claimed for $62,500 by her present connections out of a winning effort going a mile at Kentucky Downs in September 2022.

◗ Grass sprinters also will be the focus of attention Saturday with the $125,000 Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint the highlight of the card. The five-furlong fixture lured a field of very familiar faces, led by the red-hot Panther Island and Eamonn, who finished first and third, respectively, in the Janus Stakes here five weeks earlier, along with Carotari, who finished second, beaten a half-length by Yes I Am Free, as the 7-5 favorite in this same event a year ago.

The pace figures to be a grueling one, with That’s Right, Hope in Him, and Coppola, who finished fourth after contesting the early running in the Janus, also signed on.

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