Jakarta gets the mile - and the win - in Powder Break Stakes

As a winner on both turf and dirt, it didn’t matter to Jakarta when Saturday’s $75,000 Powder Break Stakes at Gulfstream Park was transferred from the turf to the dirt due to rain Friday and Saturday morning.

Having never run beyond six furlongs before, the question facing Jakarta was whether she could carry her speed a mile.

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Jakarta answered emphatically in the affirmative as the 5-year-old Pennsylvania-bred mare set the pace under Edgard Zayas, then turned back an upper-stretch challenge from Valedictorian to win the Powder Break by 2 1/4 lengths. Bella Ciao, the 2-1 favorite as the lone main-track-only entrant in the field, rallied from last to get second by a half-length over Valedictorian.

Valiance was fourth followed by W W Fitzy, Goodbye Brockley, and Great Sister Diane.

Morning-line favorite Got Stormy, Noor Sahara, Silver Kitten, and Tapit Today were all scratched due to the surface switch.

The win was the sixth from 11 starts for Jakarta, a daughter of Bustin Stones owned by Kirk Wycoff’s Three Diamonds Farm and trained by Mike Maker.

Wycoff purchased Jakarta for $35,000 last December out of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic December mixed and horses of racing age sale. She was part of owner Joseph Besecker’s dispersal.

Wyckoff said he purchased the mare with the turf in mind, specifically one-turn races at Belmont Park. Jakarta won her first start for Wyckoff and Maker, going five furlongs on the turf at Gulfstream Park on March 18. It was her first start on turf. She was 4 for 9 on dirt coming into the Powder Break.

“I liked her body type,” Wyckoff said Saturday. “She’s not built like a sprinter. She’s decent size and she’s long. I always had her [pegged] as a turf miler or seven furlongs at Belmont.”

Wyckoff said he and Maker would have run Jakarta on firm turf or dirt but would have scratched if the race was run over soft ground.

Breaking from the inside post, Jakarta went right to the lead and had a half-length advantage over W W Fitzy through a quarter in 23.26 seconds and a half-mile in 46.30.

Around the far turn, Valedictorian, under Joe Bravo, crept up alongside Jakarta and looked poised to go by in the lane. Zayas got into Jakarta while along the rail, and inside the eighth pole she began to edge away. Bella Ciao, last early under Irad Ortiz Jr., rallied to get the place but never threatened Jakarta.

Jakarta covered the mile in 1:36.37 over a fast main track and returned $24.60 as the 11-1 fifth choice in the field of seven.

“I knew she was going to be on the lead,” Zayas said. “It was a matter if they let her go comfortable enough where she could hold on. She fought back. At the three-eighths pole, she got a little pressure. At the quarter pole, I thought she was going to be done. I started riding her and she kept digging in and digging in.”