Orseno fillies need to stay out of each other's way in Saturday allowance

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Any notion that all the good horses left town the moment the Gulfstream Park Championship meet ended last Sunday were quickly dispelled once Saturday’s overnight was released, revealing four allowance events on the 11-race program. The richest is a five-furlong turf dash that lured a field of seven older fillies and mares vying for a $52,000 purse.

Trainer Joe Orseno, the newly elected president of the Florida Thoroughbred Horseman’s Association, will send out two of the seven prospective starters in the main event, race 9, including likely favorite Running Memories. The speedy daughter of Bahamian Spirit is coming off a career-best performance, a wire-to-wire 3 1/4-length starter-allowance victory over the Tapeta surface for which she earned an 88 Beyer Speed Figure, far and away the highest last-race Beyer of any member of this field. The win was the fifth in 11 career starts for Running Memories, who ran second going 5 1/2 furlongs on grass in a stakes last summer at Monmouth Park.

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Orseno also entered Tracy Ann’s Legacy in the headliner. Another not lacking for speed, she was claimed for $25,000 out of a game second-place effort going five furlongs over the grass on Feb. 19. Tracy Ann’s Legacy in 2021 ran third in a pair of five-furlong stakes, one on turf and one on dirt. She is the richest member of the field, with more than $285,000 in earnings.

“I actually had another spot picked out for Tracy, but the race didn’t go so we decided to try this one, although that wasn’t really what I had planned because Running Memories is doing so well right now and is sitting on another big race,” Orseno said. “It looks like Running Memories is a need-to-go-to-the-lead type, but I think she can sit off pace, which is what I’m looking for her to do with Tracy in the race. Hopefully the riders can control them both early and they don’t go head to head.”

Although four of Running Memories’s five wins came on grass, Orseno said off her last performance she might actually prefer the synthetic.

“Just watching her breeze on the Tapeta I could see she moves up on it, and it wouldn’t break my heart if it rained Saturday and the race came off the grass,” Orseno said.

Fouzia, Honey Pants, and Tampa Bay Downs invader Poseidon’s Passion are also key contenders in a field that includes Sammy’s Town and Dana’s Legacy.

Trainer Chad Brown may have headed north, but he left his Florida-bred filly Princess Blakely behind to run against statebreds as the likely favorite in Saturday’s fourth race carded at a mile and 70 yards over the Tapeta. Princess Blakely won her only start by a half-length on Jan. 9. Like Saturday’s race, it was at a mile and 70 yards over the Tapeta.

John Kimmel, another New York-based horseman, also saw fit to leave My Sunny Valentine in town to compete against statebreds at least one more time before shipping back north. She comes off a second-place finish under similar conditions on March 17, and may prove the one to beat in race 4. My Sunny Valentine showed marked improvement on the main track in her last two races, including a five-length maiden win in January.

Rounding out the lineup are Charlotte the Brit, who finished just a neck behind My Sunny Valentine on March 17 but has won only three of 41 lifetime starts; I Believe in Magic, who won her only start and makes her Tapeta and two-turn debut; Riveting Spirit; and Isla Bonita.

Seven allowance horses will line up to go a mile over the main track in the eighth race. The field is topped by Critical Threat, who finished second under similar conditions competing over a sloppy track on March 12. Sir Ollie, who dons blinkers for the first time, and the speedy Assertiko are among the other key players.

Three-year-old allowance fillies go six furlongs on dirt in the 10th race. One Identity figures as the favorite in a field of nine that also features the improving Stellar Ride, stakes-placed Mi Negrita, and Jumeirah, who returns to the main track off a fourth-place effort on the grass less than four weeks earlier.