Juvenile Sprint for fillies looks like a toss-up
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HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – While Sunday’s Juvenile Stakes for males at Gulfstream Park projects to be a showcase for the talents of the prohibitive favorite, Sum of Success, Saturday’s $75,000 Juvenile Sprint Stakes for fillies figures to be just the opposite. It is an extremely wide-open betting affair with a legitimate case to be made for most if not all eight entrants in a race that shares top billing on the card along with the $60,000 Groupie Doll overnight handicap.
Hot Rod Honey is one of three multiple winners and the lone stakes winner in the Juvenile Sprint field, having captured the 5 1/2-furlong Sharp Susan by 4 1/4 lengths on July 3. She will come into the race having been idle since finishing a disappointing and well-beaten third as the 3-5 favorite while stretching to six panels for the first time in the Scandalous Act Stakes on Aug. 8.
“She’s not really big but she’s fast and easy to train,” said trainer Carlos David. “She was beginning to show a little fatigue after her first two starts, so we sent her to the farm after her last race to give her a little break and get her ready for the Championship meet.”
Hot Rod Honey will come off the long layoff with only three published works on her résumé, including four furlongs in 48 seconds last Friday at Palm Meadows.
Both Army Salute and Tutto Passa have also won twice. The former looks like the controlling speed in the field but has yet to win beyond five furlongs or raced at all on dirt. Each of her previous four starts came on either turf or the synthetic Tapeta track. She is one of two fillies trainer Jose D’Angelo entered in the Juvenile Sprint, along with Classic Genes, who has been installed the tepid 3-1 morning-line favorite off her very impressive, six-length maiden win going six furlongs just three weeks earlier.
“She needs distance. We don’t have any races at a mile coming up, so that’s why we are taking a shot in here,” D’Angelo said of Classic Genes. “The other filly” – Army Salute – “has always trained very good on dirt, so we’ll have to see how she runs on it and how talented she might be for the future.”
Tutto Passo has also proven her mettle at six furlongs, having rallied to a neck decision over Early Spark, another member of the Juvenile Sprint lineup, under allowance conditions in her most recent start. She is part of a solid one-two punch for trainer Antonio Sano, along with Lady of City, who rallied from far back to win her career debut by 2 1/4 lengths as a 38-1 outsider on Oct. 3.
Scottish Lass, out of the Grade 3 winner Tapicat, a popular maiden special weight winner in her only previous start for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., and Shelby Coupe complete the field.
Groupie Doll
The Groupie Doll will be contested at 5 1/2 furlongs over the Tapeta for older fillies and mares with a couple of very familiar rivals, Great Venezuela and Vindicate Cha Cha, set to meet again over their preferred surface.
Great Venezuela will go postward the 124-pound highweight in search of her eighth victory in 11 starts on the Tapeta track in the Groupie Doll. She comes into the race off her lone win of the season, a game victory against allowance foes going five furlongs on the turf on Aug. 17. Great Venezuela finished third while beaten 2 1/2 lengths by Vindicate Cha Cha following an unlucky start when the pair last met late in the spring.
Vincicate Cha Cha will get only a one-pound concession when she faces Great Venezuela on Saturday while coming into the rematch in peak form. The speedster has won her last two starts and six of 13 overall over the synthetic strip for trainer Michael Lerman.
Great Venezuela will be joined in the starting gate for the Groupie Doll by her Victor Barboza Jr.-trained stablemate Tiffano Gold, who has been away since winning a five-furlong overnight handicap on the turf here on July 18.
Mid-Atlantic invader Duboff is also razor sharp, having won her last two starts at Delaware Park and Monmouth Park. She will be stepping up in class while also testing the Tapeta surface for the first time in her local bow.
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