High-profile barns square off in turf allowance

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – While a good many Northern-based horsemen have already packed their bags and headed back home with the close of the Gulfstream Championship meet here last Sunday, not all the big names have abandoned ship just yet. Saturday’s $61,000 allowance feature for 3-year-old fillies over 1 1/16 miles on turf attracted horses from the barns of such notable New York- and Kentucky-based trainers as Chad Brown, Todd Pletcher, Mark Casse, and Brendan Walsh.

Brown sends out potential favorite Watchtower, who improved dramatically in her last start, earning a career-best 81 Beyer Figure and rallying to win a maiden special weight test going a mile by 1 1/2 lengths in her third lifetime start.

Pletcher will counter with Lady Madonna, who finished far back following an unlucky start while launching her career on Gulfstream’s Tapeta course Jan. 7. She returned five weeks later to register a well-deserved neck victory at a mile on the grass, earning a modest 72 Beyer.

Casse will send out a pair, debut winner Gild the Lily and the idled Hockey, both of whom earned their diplomas over synthetic surfaces. Gild the Lily graduated locally on March 8, while Hockey won in gate-to-wire fashion in September at Woodbine.

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Walsh has entered the French-bred Normanjito, who makes her U.S. and 3-year-old debut off a long series of grass works at the Palm Meadows training center.

The locally based contingent is headed by Madame Mischief, who returns to what appears to be her preferred surface off a fifth-place finish under similar allowance conditions over the Tapeta a month earlier, and the red-hot Roscoe Village.

Madame Mischief has proven competitive against stakes company on several occasions, dating back to her juvenile finale on Dec. 9. She owns the highest lifetime Beyer of any member of the lineup, an 82, for her fourth-place effort in the Grade 3 Sweetest Chant on Feb. 3.

Roscoe Village brings a three-race win streak that began with a 1 3/4-length maiden victory when claimed by her present connections for $35,000 on Jan. 12. She has since returned to register a pair of optional-claiming/starter-allowance tallies for her present trainer, Fernando Abreu, and could prove the controlling speed

Top Blue, De Regreso, and Lincoln Park round out the lineup.

Familiar jockeys return

While most of the leading jockeys from the Championship meet also are gone, some familiar faces have returned to town for the spring-summer session, including Chris Landeros, who will ride Gild the Lily for Casse, and Fernando Jara, who has the mount aboard De Regreso in Saturday’s feature. Patrick Husbands is named by Casse to retain his regular seat on Hockey.

Sonny Leon, winner of the 2022 Kentucky Derby aboard Rich Strike, also is back for the meet.

A trio of young riders will try their luck locally for the first time, including a pair of 10-pound bug boys, Rey Martinez, a native of Puerto Rico, and Melvis Gonzalez from Panama. They will be joined here by Erica Murray, a Louisiana native who rode six winners during the 2023-24 Fair Grounds meet. Former jockey Chantal Sutherland will handle engagements for both Murray and Gonzalez, while veteran agent Kevin Meyocks has taken Martinez’s book.

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