Rachel Alexandra's sister takes her maiden

MIAMI – Trainer Kelsey Danner said she couldn’t understand all the fuss when her 2-year-old Gladys debuted on Sept. 18 at Gulfstream Park. But then again, full siblings to champions like Rachel Alexandra don’t come around these parts that often.

Gladys finished a well-beaten eighth going six furlongs at first asking. But she made her beloved older sister and 2009 Horse of the Year proud here Sunday, stretching out to a mile and splashing through the slop to a three-length maiden special weight victory.

“I didn’t expect all the attention and publicity she received before her first start, especially going six furlongs,” said Danner, who currently has 36 horses bedded down at the Palm Meadows training facility. “I expected a little more out of her the first time, but she was a little green that day and got hit with a ton of dirt. It was a lot to handle. But we did some work from the gate, and her last three breezes were pretty nice. I thought she’d like the mud yesterday [Sunday,] and I knew two turns was what she really wanted.”

Danner also trains Airstreem, a 3-year-old half-brother to Rachel Alexandra by Tapit who has registered a pair of fourth-place finishes in three starts. Heaven Trees Farms, the nom de course for Dr. Dede McGehee, bred both horses. McGehee is listed as the sole owner of Gladys and as a partner in Airstreem with Jackpot Farms.

Danner, who also has 15 horses bedded down in Kentucky, said Gladys would stay around two turns and be entered back against allowance company sometime next month.

Second Mate off the layoff

Turf racing has been all but non-existent around these parts for the better part of the past two weeks. Hopefully, things will get back to normal in time for Thursday’s program, which features a $44,000 allowance race on the grass that lured a solid field of 10 including a quartet of turf stakes winners.

Second Mate could be favored, despite the fact he has been idle since finishing fifth in the Sunshine Millions Turf at Gulfstream Park nine months earlier. Trained by Mike Maker, Second Mate finished third, beaten just a neck, over this course a year ago in the Sunshine Millions Turf Preview. He won the restricted Soldier’s Dancer over a sloppy main track during the spring of 2019 and also was runner-up earlier that season in the Sunshine Millions Turf.

Claimed for $62,500 by his present connections shortly before winning the Soldier’s Dancer, Second Mate has turned in a long and steady series of works over the main track at Gulfstream, including a trio of bullet five-furlong drills in preparation for his return.

Scraps, winner of the Bears Den at Gulfstream at 3, has been lightly campaigned thus far in 2020 and should benefit from his last outing, a wide eighth-place finish in the Mr. Steele in his first start since a fourth-place finish in the Sunshine Millions Turf nine months earlier.

Stirling Drive is winless in six starts this year, his most recent victory having come over the local course, a hard-fought head decision in the Showing Up going a mile last November. Durocher is coming off an even longer drought, looking to get back to the winner’s circle for the first time since upsetting the Tropical Park Derby at Gulfstream in December 2017.

Should the rains come again and the race be switched to dirt, it would likely favor Max K.O. who already has two main-track wins to his credit, or the versatile Rocket Joe Copper.