Nine stakes close 2021 and open 2022
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The old year will go out and the new year come in with a flourish, at least on the racetrack at Gulfstream Park, with nine stakes races to be decided in little more than a 24-hour period here Friday and Saturday afternoons.
Friday’s card offers three stakes, all on the turf, with the action starting in the opening race with the five-furlong Janus. Helping to round out the final Gulfstream card of the 2021 season is the Abundantia, the Janus’s filly counterpart, and the 1 3/8-mile Via Borghese. The Via Borghese lured a very competitive field of 10 led by Candy Flower, runner-up in the Grade 3 Long Island; the Grade 2-placed Beautiful Lover; Always Shopping; and Sorrel.
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The $150,000 Mucho Macho Man for 3-year-olds is the richest of the six stakes to be run on Saturday – four on dirt and two on turf. The one-mile Mucho Macho Man attracted 19 nominations led by the Todd Pletcher-trained My Prankster and the Saffie Joseph Jr. trio of White Abarrio, Skippylongstocking, and A. P.’s Secret. Other key names on the list include Cooke Creek, runner-up in the Grade 3 Nashua at Aqueduct; Strike Hard, who defeated both Skippylongstocking and A. P.’s Secret in a one-mile allowance race here earlier this month; and impressive debut maiden winners Graphic Detail and O Captain.
Songbird’s brother wins
Any 2-year-old about to turn 3 who wins a race around two turns at this time of year demands special attention. When the horse also happens to be a half-brother to the nine-time Grade 1 winner Songbird, the interest level ratchets up even higher.
The horse in question is Galt, a son of Medaglia d’Oro who stretched out to 1 1/16 miles for the first time and rallied to a workmanlike three-length maiden victory here Sunday with Junior Alvarado aboard for trainer Bill Mott. The win came in the third start for Galt, who had finished off the board in both previous outings, the second over the turf at Belmont.
Galt, who raced without blinkers for the first time on Sunday, earned a modest 67 Beyer Figure for his maiden win. His dam, Ivanavinalot, is a familiar name to local fans, having campaigned regularly around South Florida almost two decades earlier with trainer Kathleen O’Connell. Her most notable triumph came in the Grade 2 Bonnie Miss here during the winter of 2003. Her most famous foal was Songbird.