Open and statebred allowances featured
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Before 3-year-olds take over Saturday at Gulfstream Park, older horses will get their turn Friday. Not only are there two allowances for 4-year-olds and upward on an 11-race card, but a pair of allowances for older Florida-breds also will be run earlier in the day.
All in all, the four allowances are an upgrade from three post-Pegasus programs composed primarily of maiden or claiming races. The Friday card gets underway at 12:35 p.m. Eastern, with the richest of the allowances (race 10) a $52,000 second-level sprint going at 5:08.
The Saturday card at Gulfstream will feature five stakes, all for 3-year-olds.
Rock and Fellers (post 9, Jose Lezcano) likely will come favored for trainer Jorge Navarro in the Friday feature after earning a 101 Beyer Speed Figure when going through his first allowance condition here in early January. That 6 3/4-length romp came over the slop, but with no rain expected in this area at least until Sunday, the Argentine-bred 5-year-old will have to show whether he can replicate that sort of effort over a dry track.
Unbridled Outlaw (post 3, Luis Saez), trained by Dale Romans for the Albaugh Family Stables, could be his main challenger after most recently finishing second to another Navarro trainee, the old class horse Delta Bluesman.
“I liked the way he ran,” said Romans. “We didn’t have any excuses but it was his first race in almost eight weeks and he should move forward off it.”
Fast Friar (post 6, Irad Ortiz Jr.), entered off a fifth-place finish in the Grade 3 Mr. Prospector in late December, is another logical threat in a field of nine.
Some 30 minutes beforehand in race 9, a $51,000 turf mile for fillies and mares, the lack of a standout favorite should make for one of the better wagering events of the day. English Dancer, stretching out from a turf sprint for trainer Bill Mott and the Turf Stable of Rusty Jones and partners, figures among a core of contenders in a field that will be reduced to no more than 10 if Zena Rules is scratched as a main-track-only entrant.
The Florida-bred allowances, each worth $44,000, are carded as races 3 and 6, the latter of which kicks off the 20-cent Rainbow 6 sequence (races 6-11). Wednesday action began with a depleted Rainbow jackpot following a mandatory dispersal on Sunday.
