R Harper Rose should bounce back in Azalea after failed trip to Kentucky

R Harper Rose is back home at Gulfstream Park on Saturday to start as the most accomplished member of the field in the $95,000 Azalea, a seven-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies.

R Harper Rose is a Grade 3 winner at the distance and overall is 4 for 6 at Gulfstream. She is part of a field of seven in the Azalea on an 11-race card. The group also includes Miuccia, Haulin Ice, and Marshmallow Queen, all capable runners who finished a respective first through third in last month’s $75,000 Game Face.

R Harper Rose made a splash last year at Gulfstream, when she won the first three starts of her career led by the seven-furlong division of the Florida Sire Stakes. This year she won the Grade 3 Forward Gal at the same distance in a performance that sent her to Churchill Downs for the Grade 2 Eight Belles on May 3. R Harper Rose finished an uncharacteristic 11th after breaking from post 11.

“Hopefully, she gets back to the real Harper Rose,” trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said. “The last time at Churchill it was sloppy and it just seemed like anything outside, they didn’t fire – any horses out wide in the slop that day.

“So, we just kind of treat that race like a ‘draw a line through it’ and hopefully she regroups back to her better races.”

Edgard Zayas has the mount from post 3 for Averill Racing and Two Eight Racing.

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R Harper Rose, who has natural speed, has never finished worse than second in six main-track starts at Gulfstream.

Haulin Ice is new on the scene. The three-time winner was a private purchase by C2 Racing Stable and Miller Racing following the Oaklawn Park meet that ended in May. She finished second after contesting the pace while making her Gulfstream debut in the Game Face. The Azalea will be her first start at seven furlongs after racing exclusively at six furlongs.

“That’s a question mark,” Joseph said. “She’s fast enough to put herself in a good spot, but she doesn’t need to lead. We’ve been working with her to relax a bit more, so hopefully, that will be the key.”

The Game Face was Haulin Ice’s first start for Joseph.

“She’s a nice horse,” he said. “She ran a decent second the other day. It’s always hard to ship from anywhere into Florida in the summer. It’s very hard. Now, she’s kind of climatized a bit better. We hope she could move forward another jump.”

Emisael Jaramillo has the mount from post 5.

Joseph also sends out Candy Gray, who is cutting back to one turn after running fourth in the Martha Washington at 1 1/16 miles on Tapeta. She was a nine-length debut winner going 6 1/2 furlongs on the main track at Gulfstream last September.

Drayden Van Dyke has the mount from post 2 for Gentry Farms.

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