Holy Helena a stickout in The Very One

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Gulfstream Park is running so many graded stakes Saturday that there’s more than one for fillies and mares on turf. An opening jaunt down the homestretch is the only difference between a pair of Grade 3, $150,000 events – The Very One goes at 1 3/16 miles and the Honey Fox at a mile.

Holy Helena, a Queen’s Plate winner who captured The Very One on the Fountain of Youth undercard last year, will have leading jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. in the saddle and is sure to be favored to defend her title following a subpar last race.

The Honey Fox has greater depth to it. Precieuse, one of a handful of potential 2019 standouts in this niche from the Chad Brown barn, hinted at stardom last summer in her North American debut, and fans probably will default to her in a race otherwise filled with options.

The Very One (race 7)

Holy Helena is the obvious favorite, and not only because of her forever Queen’s Plate label. She’s also the only one of eight starters in the main body of the field with more than $1 million in earnings, and a demonstrated fondness for the local surface would seem to give her an even bigger edge. The Stronach Stables homebred, who is based in New York for much of the year, has two wins and a close second from four attempts over the Gulfstream turf.

“She likes the climate and seems to be happy and trains well down here,” trainer Jimmy Jerkens said. “She does well back home, too, but it might be a little better down here.”

Perhaps the main drawback to playing Holy Helena at a short price is the chance she runs back to her sixth-place finish in the 1 1/2-mile La Prevoyante on the Jan. 26 Pegasus undercard. She did have legitimate excuses – course condition (boggy), distance (too far), race dynamics (lots of traffic), and what seemed to be stronger competition.

“She just couldn’t accelerate when she needed to,” Jerkens said.

If Holy Helena is to be defeated again, Tricky Escape and Semper Sententiae are the most logical winners. Tricky Escape has been first or second in 13 of 22 starts and has banked nearly $900,000, while Semper Sententiae has progressed steadily under Mark Hennig’s watch.

With ideal weather in the forecast for Saturday, the lone main-track-only designate in this race surely will be scratched. She is Eskimo Kisses, winner of the Grade 1 Alabama last August who has not raced since finishing seventh as the favorite in the Grade 1 Spinster last October at Keeneland.

Honey Fox (race 11)

Precieuse is following a familiar Brown blueprint as a European import with whom the three-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer has taken his sweet time. After a near-miss in a restricted stakes last summer over the Saratoga turf, the Irish-bred mare has been regrouped with eight works at Palm Meadows since late December. Precieuse raced in England and France earlier in her career and won the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (French 1000 Guineas) in 2017.

Javier Castellano will be aboard Precieuse when she breaks from post 1 in a field of 10. She’ll have to be good to deny a trio of opponents a second straight stakes triumph over the local course – Valedictory, winner of the Feb. 9 Suwannee River over the Brown-trained Rymska; Bellavais, winner of the Jan. 12 Marshua’s River for Todd Pletcher; and Dolce Lili, winner of the South Beach for Bill Mott on the Pegasus undercard.

Other starters of note include La Signare, the beaten favorite in the Marshua’s River, and Hogans Holiday, who will have Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard after defeating lesser sorts in her most recent.