Little Miss Julia gets first-time Lasix in statebred sprint
With a gigantic Fountain of Youth card laying in wait, no wonder the programs leading up to Saturday at Gulfstream Park have been found a bit wanting.
There wasn’t so much as one allowance carded for Thursday, and Friday isn’t that much better: a $38,000, first-level allowance with a Florida-bred restriction serves as the nominal highlight of an 11-race program.
Little Miss Julia, who finished 11 1/4 lengths behind the promising Stonestreet Stables filly Perchance in her last start, looks as good as any in the ninth-race feature, a six-furlong race that drew a field of eight 3-year-old fillies. Joel Rosario retains the mount on Little Miss Julia, who will be treated with the diuretic Lasix for the first time in four career starts.
Trainer Carlo Vaccarezza said a bleeding incident in that Jan. 22 race was not severe, but the filly’s trachea was diagnosed post-race to be “full of mucus, plus she was extremely nervous in the paddock. I thought maybe giving her Lasix would be the way to go for this race.”
First post Friday is 1 p.m. Eastern, with all races scheduled to be run on the hour and half-hour. A $35,000 starter/optional-claiming race directly precedes the feature as race 8.
KEY CONTENDERS
Little Miss Julia (Last 3 Beyers: 66-71-52)
◗ A two-back victory against Florida-bred maidens was done with complete authority and made her the second choice behind the odds-on Perchance in her first crack at winners, a race in which she was away a bit tardily and never really entered the fray.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 6 Little Miss Julia. Beat Friday’s rival Wildcat Gaze in her maiden victory on Dec. 17; all other horses from that race went 9-0-0-2 in their following starts. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
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Competitive Player (Last 3 Beyers: 72-53-61)
◗ She was a winning 3-10 favorite when claimed by Peter Walder from an extremely weak maiden-claiming race in her last start, which was the lucky 13th of her career. Still, the 72 Beyer Speed Figure she earned in that 10 1/4-length romp seems to make her a match for any of these others.
Perpetual Novena (Last 3 Beyers: 67-48-65)
◗ This filly, who was deemed good enough to try the Colleen and Sorority stakes at Monmouth Park last summer following a successful June debut, recently had a useful tune-up against open allowance fillies and figures as one of the logical choices here when moving from turf to dirt and into statebred company.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 4 Perpetual Novena. Trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. is 35-12-6-4 with a $3.03 ROI over the past two years going turf to dirt in sprints. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
Wildcat Gaze (Last 3 Beyers: 67-59-50)
◗ This Patricia Generazio homebred enjoyed a textbook stalk-and-see trip from the outside post when knocking out her maiden condition Jan. 25 and now comes properly spotted while retaining the perpetually hot Javier Castellano.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 7 Wildcat Gaze. Trainer Jane Cibelli is 35-5-8-1 with a $0.99 ROI over the past five years in dirt sprints with last-out maiden winners. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan