Penwith preps for return to stakes ranks
Penwith is a nose and a neck from being a two-time stakes winner, but hold on for a minute. A new slate begins Thursday at Gulfstream Park for a 5-year-old mare whose prior races suggest she is quite capable of ultimately joining those elite ranks.
A Godolphin Racing homebred, Penwith is one of just five fillies and mares in a $46,000 allowance that serves as the Thursday feature at the south Florida track. Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin had hoped to win a stakes with Penwith in 2015 after she was beaten a zop in the Affectionately at Aqueduct on New Year’s Day, but her campaign was interrupted when she was found with a minor injury in the spring.
“She had to have a tiny chip taken out,” McLaughlin said this week from the Palm Meadows training center. “But she’s come back real well, and I like the way she’s training.”
Ten workouts precede this re-entry into allowance company for Penwith, whose record in non-stakes races is 3 for 4, with her only defeat coming in her career debut. Those credentials should make her a solid wagering choice in a main-track mile in which Bourbon Warfare and Stiffed figure as the chief opposition.
With the small field, the feature is carded early in the day as the fourth of 10 races. First post is 12:35 p.m. Eastern.
KEY CONTENDERS
Penwith (Last 3 Beyers: 68-88-74)
◗ Third in a three-horse photo behind Stopchargingmaria and Got Lucky in the Grade 2 Demoiselle as a 2-year-old, this Bernardini mare typically has flaunted the kind of speed that should make her a tough catch in this short lineup.
◗ She worked twice on the farm and eight more times at Palm Meadows, all to suggest that McLaughlin has a likely winner to pad his above-average stats (26 percent, $2.32 ROI) in the 180-day-plus-layoff category.
Bourbon Warfare (Last 3 Beyers: 82-81-78)
◗ Another 5-year-old mare returning from a layoff (seven months), she’ll be looking to recapture the sharp form that carried her to back-to-back allowance romps in the spring for Bourbon Lane Stable.
Stiffed (Last 3 Beyers: 80-82-74)
◗ She might not have enough pace in front of her to set the table, but there’s something to be said for the persistence and consistency this New Jersey-bred has developed under John Mazza’s care.