Lady's Island proves fastest of the fast in Sugar Swirl Stakes

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The old handicapping adage “the speed of the speed” certainly applied to Saturday’s $100,000 Sugar Swirl Stakes at Gulfstream Park. Lady’s Island led her eight rivals on a merry chase en route to an easy 6 ¾-length victory over Kentucky invader Meadow Dance in the Grade 3 dash for fillies and mares.

Lady’s Island came into the six-furlong Sugar Swirl having captured seven of her last eight starts, the majority of those victories coming against starter-allowance competition and all coming in wire-to-wire fashion. And despite facing a field that include several other front-running types, Lady’s Island easily made the lead under Emisael Jaramillo, settled into the stretch with a comfortable advantage, and was never seriously menaced.

Meadow Dance outfinished the 70-1 Pretty Greeley to finish second. A Bit of Both, with six victories in her previous seven starts, faded badly after prompting the winner’s pace in the run down the backstretch, finishing a tiring fifth as the 9-5 favorite.

Lady’s Island, a 5-year-old Florida-bred daughter of Greatness, is owned by Averill Racing and Matties Racing and gave Georgina Baxter the first graded stakes win of her training career. She completed the distance over a fast track in 1:10.75 and paid $8.60.

“Unbelievable, it’s amazing,” Baxter said when asked what it was like to become a graded stakes-winning trainer for the first time. “I was so nervous because I was kind of quietly confident. She’s been training lights out. We were going to run her [on turf] in the Claiming Crown. We thought she handles the grass, but she’s probably better on the dirt. Everyone always says they have fast fillies, but they’re not going faster than this one. She’s just super quick. She’s put on all this muscle now, and she can carry it.”