La Australiana, Chilled Milk meet again in Saturday feature

MIAMI – The conditions may be similar but the competition perhaps not as stiff when La Australiana and Chilled Milk square off for the second straight time in a $45,000 first-level allowance test for fillies and mares at 7 1/2 furlongs on the turf Saturday at Gulfstream Park West.

La Australiana and Chilled Milk finished third and fourth, a length apart, behind the even-money winner Kelsey’s Cross going a mile Sept. 14 at Gulfstream Park. Kelsey’s Cross finished third in the Wonder Again in late spring at Belmont Park and also finished third two months later in the Saratoga Oaks prior to dropping into allowance company to register her second career victory.

La Australiana swung wide into the stretch and finished with good energy from between horses to be beaten 1 1/4 lengths by Kelsey’s Cross. She was returning to the turf off a dull showing over a sloppy track six weeks earlier. A 3-year-old daughter of the English-bred sire Australia, La Australiana is trained by Juan Avila and will be ridden by the red-hot Leonel Reyes.

Chilled Milk raced several lengths in front of La Australiana and finished evenly when beaten 2 1/4 lengths by Kelsey’s Cross . A 5-year-old Artie Schiller mare trained by Cam Gambolati, Chilled Milk put together a modest two-race win streak during the Gulfstream Park Championship meeting. She earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 80 in the second of those races, a 5 3/4-length victory in a statebred allowance race going a mile on turf March 24.

Both La Australiana and Chilled Milk do their best running from off the pace and should benefit from the presence of Lady Nina and Lillie’s Heat in the lineup. Both fillies are coming off a wire-to-wire victory Sept. 19 at Gulfstream, with Lady Nina defeating first-level Florida-bred allowance competition and Lillie’s Heat exiting a win over $10,000 conditioned-claiming company.

Other contenders in the main event include Trieste, who finished a solid second when last trying the grass on July 26, and Aquemini, who was re-claimed by trainer Peter Walder for $16,000 out of a second-place finish in her last start.

◗ Another reason to favor the chances of La Australiana in Saturday’s headliner is the presence Reyes in the saddle. Reyes was the No. 1 star on opening day of the 2019 Gulfstream Park West meet on Wednesday, winning three of the first six events on the eight-race program.

Reyes, who finished eighth in the standings with 22 victories during the recently concluded Gulfstream Park summer session, captured the third, fifth, and sixth races on the card. He began his big day aboard the odds-on Northern ($3.40) and completed the hat trick with longshots Chic and Sexy ($13.60) and Alien Invasion ($16). Reyes then wheeled right back to win Thursday’s opener aboard the 2-1 Dude’s Secret.