Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard favored Loriloupies in Thursday feature

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Back at his winter base following a five-win Saturday at Tampa Bay, star jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. has a number of live mounts on a nine-race Thursday card at Gulfstream Park, including Loriloupies in the $62,000 allowance feature (race 8).

Loriloupies, trained by Saffie Joseph Jr., will break from post 1 in a field of six fillies and mares in the second-level allowance going 6 1/2 furlongs. The 2-1 morning-line favorite, she makes her first start since finishing fifth in the Grade 3 Sugar Swirl in mid-December. Among the opposition is Music City Star (post 6, Jose Ortiz), fourth in the Sugar Swirl.

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Ortiz won three of the four Saturday stakes at Tampa, including the featured Sam Davis on Classic Causeway. He returned Sunday to Gulfstream, winning two more races. He is named in six races here Thursday.

Joseph, the leading trainer from the outset of the four-month championship meet, which began Dec. 2, began the week with a 37-32 lead atop the local standings over Todd Pletcher, an 18-time Gulfstream champion. The meet runs through April 3.

The feature is part of a 20-cent Rainbow 6 (races 4-9) expected to offer a gross pool guarantee of at least $800,000, assuming a solo winning ticket does not empty the pool Wednesday. A $54,000 allowance (race 7) for Florida-bred fillies and mares going a mile on turf also is part of the sequence.

First post is 12:30 p.m. Eastern, with the eighth going at 4:11. Sunny skies and a high of 80 are in the local forecast.