Princess Rooney and Smile both get eight

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The Grade 2 Princess Rooney is one of only three races in the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series providing a fees-paid berth into the Filly and Mare Sprint on Nov. 3, and the only one until the Grade 1 Ballerina at Saratoga on Aug. 25. But even with the added incentive of a $250,000 purse, the race drew a field of only eight on Wednesday, including defending winner Curlin’s Approval, as the highlight of Saturday’s Summit of Speed program at Gulfstream Park.

Curlin’s Approval finished 13th following a stumble at the start after using her free ticket into the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. She parlayed a perfect stalking trip from an outside post under jockey Luis Saez to an easy victory in the Princess Rooney here a year ago. She will have to break from the rail when she attempts to defend that title on Saturday with Saez aboard once again.

The remainder of the Princess Rooney field, in post position order, is Ms Locust Point (Jorge Vargas Jr.), the lightly raced My Miss Tapit (Tyler Gaffalione), Rich Mommy (Emisael Jaramillo), She Takes Heart (Edgard Zayas), Treble (David Cabrera), Stormy Embrace (Wilmer Garcia), and Spanish Harlem (Nik Juarez).

Curlin’s Approval is one of only two Grade 2 winners in the seven-furlong Princess Rooney, which enjoyed Grade 1 status from 2006 through 2014. The other is the speedy Ms Locust Point, who is also one of only two fillies to ship in for the race. Treble was the last to arrive locally. She came on a flight from her Churchill Downs base, along with stablemate Petrov, who’ll compete in Saturday’s $250,000 Smile Sprint.

Unlike Treble, Ms Locust Point shipped to South Florida far in advance of the Princess Rooney to acclimate to the conditions, which have been hot and very steamy for the past several weeks. Trained by John Servis, who has kept a division of his stable at the Palm Meadows training center for the summer, Ms Locust Point has worked twice since her arrival, an easy five furlongs in 1:03 on June 17 and a stiffer five-eighths in 1:00 six days later.

Ms Locust Point ran eighth in the Grade 1 Madison at Keeneland and third as the favorite in the Skipat at Pimlico in her last two starts.

“She’s had excuses in her last two starts,” said Servis. “She got left at the break in the Madison and didn’t really care for the sloppy track when third in the Skipat at Pimlico. It’s a shame because I think she was so much better than them. Hopefully she’ll get a fast track on Saturday.”

The six-furlong Smile also lured a field of eight despite the imposing presence of X Y Jet, who figures to go postward the odds-on favorite returning to his home grounds off a huge effort in Dubai when second to Mind Your Biscuits in the Golden Shaheen. Unlike Curlin’s Approval, X Y Jet is favorably drawn for the Smile in post position 8 with regular rider Jaramillo aboard.

Classic Rock tops the local contingent for the Smile, which also includes the multiple graded-stakes winner Mr. Jordan, Mo Cash, and the red-hot Reason to Soar. The well-traveled Petrov is the only member of the field besides X Y Jet shipping in for the race, which lost its usual place on the roster of Challenge races for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint this year due to its Grade 3 status.

The Princess Rooney and Smile will be decided as the 12th and 13th races on Saturday’s marathon 14-race program, and will be part of a Rainbow 6 sequence that features a mandatory payout of the entire pool. If the wager is not hit on either Thursday or Friday, the carryover into Saturday’s card figures to approach $900,000. Three other stakes, the Carry Back and Azalea for 3-year-olds and 3-year-old fillies, respectively, and the Bob Umphrey Turf Sprint for older horses will also be decided earlier on Saturday’s card and are not a part of the Rainbow 6 sequence.

Friday allowance draws six

A field of six older horses will compete in Friday’s $48,000 optional-claiming headliner to be run at 1 1/16 miles on the main track. Hy Riverside and Deland, third and fourth behind Mr. Jordan in the Big Drama Stakes on May 12, are the ones to beat, with Millionaire Runner, Gray Beau, Royal Holiday, and Diamond Bachelor filling out the lineup.

Hy Riverside will return on just six days’ rest after finishing second under similar conditions in a race switched from the turf to a sloppy main track and decided at one mile on Saturday.

Deland, a Group 1 winner going 1 1/4 miles in Puerto Rico earlier in his career, finished second behind Imperial Hint in a six-furlong statebred stakes earlier this spring at Tampa Bay Downs.