Shifty She has Pallas looking ahead
Chris Pallas experienced the big-time with Mambo Meister and liked it. It has taken longer than he would have preferred, but Pallas might finally be primed for a return to major races with a mare named Shifty She.
“She’s special,” said Pallas, a longtime Fort Lauderdale resident and licensed pharmacist who has owned and bred horses in Florida for more than 20 years.
Shifty She has earned 88 Beyer Speed Figures in back-to-back stakes victories at Gulfstream Park in South Florida, where on Saturday she figures as a solid favorite in the $75,000 Monroe.
“We’re hoping this race Saturday sets us up for a shot at a graded race, maybe at Kentucky Downs in September,” said Pallas, who competes under the nom de course of Pedigree Partners LLC with Harvey Rothenberg.
Shifty She, a 5-year-old by Gone Astray, has won 5 of 7 starts in a career interrupted for 16 months by a tendon injury that became the focus of Ocala horseman David “Art” Fisher, who Pallas credits with “giving her the time and effort required to bringing her back to a very sound situation. Art did a great job with her.”
In three starts this year – a fourth-place finish in her April return was followed by triumphs in the May 15 Powder Break and June 12 Ginger Punch – Shifty She appears to be maxxing out on her abilities for Saffie Joseph Jr., easily the leading trainer at the current spring-summer meet.
Pallas, 67, was the managing partner in Mambo Meister, who became a local favorite when earning more than $700,000 in 42 starts from 2007 to 2012, almost all of them in Florida. The few exceptions included a run at Santa Anita in the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile in which Mambo Meister was fifth, beaten just two lengths.
“That’s always the goal, to come up with a top horse like him,” Pallas said.
The Monroe highlights a Saturday card that starts at 12:20 p.m. Eastern.
◗ Two first-level sprint allowances on the main track – one open, one for statebreds – anchor a nine-race Friday card that kicks off another three-day weekend at Gulfstream with a 2 p.m. start. Carded as races 6 and 8, both are part of the 50-cent late pick four (races 6-9) and a 20-cent Rainbow 6 (races 4-9) expected to offer a guaranteed pool in the $500,000 range. The Rainbow 6 jackpot stood at $342,424 through last weekend.
Race 6 is a $52,000, six-furlong race in which Awesome Annmarie figures as a solid favorite among six fillies and mares, while Joseph has a 3-year-old gelding named Bailey as the one to beat among seven Florida-breds in race 8, a $51,000 race at 6 1/2 furlongs.
◗ The next six-figure stakes at Gulfstream are set for July 31, when the $100,000 Dr. Fager and $100,000 Desert Vixen will be run. Those six-furlong races kick off the annual Florida Sire Stakes series for 2-year-olds.