As simple as 1-2-3, the Euros stand out

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Friday's $53,500 allowance feature at Gulfstream Park will have a decidedly European flavor to it as top contenders All Is Vanity, Just Little, and Miss Lucifer are all Group 2 stakes winners across the pond.

The race, No. 8 on the card, is for fillies and mares 4 and up at a mile on the grass.

All Is Vanity and Just Little are no strangers to one another, having finished first and third, respectively, in a Group 2 stakes at Chantilly in June 2007. All Is Vanity, a 4-year-old daughter of Gold Away, put the finishing touches on a four-race win streak with her 2 1/2-length victory that day, for which she received a career-best 108 Racing Post Rating.

All Is Vanity made two subsequent starts, including a Group 1 try in Deauville, before shipping to the U.S. and into the barn of trainer Christophe Clement for a 2008 campaign.

Just Little won a Group 3 stakes at Longchamp in France before finishing 2 3/4 lengths behind All Is Vanity in the Group 2 Prix de Sandringham Stakes. She used that race as a springboard to her U.S. debut five weeks later in Hollywood Park's Grade 1 American Oaks, but then finished sixth behind race winner Panty Raid. Just Little was subsequently turned over to trainer Todd Pletcher, who gave her the rest of the year off.

"She was tired from both the race and the ship from Europe, so I just felt she needed a break after the Oaks," Pletcher said. "She's appropriately named - she's not very big and doesn't carry a lot of weight - but she's training well and I'm looking forward to getting her started - although this has come up a very tough race."

Miss Lucifer raced exclusively in England at 2 and 3, closing out her 2007 campaign with a victory in the October Stakes at Ascot and a convincing 1 1/4-length tally against males in the Group 2 Challenge Stakes at Newmarket. Trained by Saeed bin Suroor for Godolphin Racing, Miss Lucifer shows four published works at Payson Park in preparation for her return, which also will be her first race beyond seven furlongs in 11 career starts.

La Conseillante is a fourth member of the field who began her career in Europe. La Conseillante won her first three starts, including a listed stakes in France in the spring of 2007. But she finished seventh following a slow start in her U.S. debut for trainer Allen Jerkens against softer allowance company here on Jan. 10.

Carriage Trail, A Different Tune, Quelle Beaute, Pretoria Light, and Banda Victoria round out the lineup.