Hangover Saturday shortens up in turf-sprint feature

Anyone partaking of too much grog on New Year’s Eve had better avoid handicapping the feature race the next day at Gulfstream Park. It could make the headache even worse.

Indeed, trying to narrow down the full field assembled for the lone allowance of a 10-race Thursday program will be no easy chore for those with the brown-bottle flu. And thus begins 2015 at Gulfstream, where fillies collectively celebrating their third birthdays will vie for a $48,000 purse under a first-level condition at five furlongs on the turf.

Appropriately enough, a David Fawkes-trained filly named Hangover Saturday is among the likely contenders in the ninth of 10 Thursday races at the south Florida track, where new first post is 12:40 p.m. Eastern. Other favorites include Cool Comfort, Gato Del Cielo, and Lady Shipman.

Live racing continues daily at Gulfstream through Sunday, after which a regular five-day schedule resumes Jan. 7.

KEY CONTENDERS

Hangover Saturday (Last 3 Beyers: 49-65-53)

◗ Three straight attempts going a two-turn turf mile may have dulled her speed, but then again, perhaps the turn-back will do her good. Her career debut in August along with the consistent way she has flaunted her speed going a mile suggest she just might be asking for these five furlongs.

◗ She’s the only stakes winner in the field, having won a November race in the Florida Stallion series at Gulfstream Park West, and one of five entered Thursday for the $75,000 claiming option.

Cool Comfort (Last 3 Beyers: 64-77-61)

◗ Blinkers come off a Big Brown filly who set a too-fast pace in the Grade 3 Jessamine at Keeneland in her last start while still holding respectably for fourth. Like many of the Wesley Ward horses who’ve been resurfacing lately, she has been away from the races for a while, owing to the 30-day suspension he served in November for a 2012 medication violation.

Like a Queen (Last 3 Beyers: 52-45-64)

◗ Her last two were no good, but this return to a sprint distance might reawaken her stretch punch. Something like her October effort in an ungraded stakes over the Gulfstream turf would make her a pricey threat here, and the presence of Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez never hurts.

Gato Del Cielo (Beyers: 56-52)

◗ This Kentucky-bred daughter of Tale of the Cat gets her first class test Thursday when she faces a number of fillies who already have stakes experience, but two promising efforts in the maiden ranks suggest she’ll match up.

◗ Trainer Ralph Nicks brings momentum into 2015 after posting his career high in wins (35) in 2014.

Lady Shipman (Beyers: 79-56)

◗ Her mid-November romp over the Gulfstream Park West turf equated to a field-high 79 Beyer and makes her an obvious consideration here, especially as the likely outside speed.

◗ Trainer Kathleen O’Connell won more than 100 races in 2014, just the second time she has hit triple digits in her 34-year career.