Southern Sunshine may need one for Remington feature

Southern Sunshine was a maiden after her first three starts of 2019. Three races later, the filly had evolved into a two-time winner who was third in the $219,894 Valley Junction Futurity at Prairie Meadows last October.

“The family is late maturing,” trainer Stacy Charette-Hill said Wednesday.

Friday, Southern Sunshine will have her 2020 debut in an allowance race at 350 yards at Remington Park. Charette-Hill cautions that Southern Sunshine will benefit from the race, which is designed as a prep for the Prairie Meadows meeting later this year.

“She needs this out, don’t get me wrong,” Charette-Hill said. “I think she can win if everything goes her way. She might get a little short.

“We’re trying to set her up for Iowa.”

Southern Sunshine, by Pyc Paint Your Wagon, won consecutive starts at Prairie Meadows last year – a maiden special weight race at 250 yards and a division of the Valley Junction Futurity trials at 350 yards.

Owned by Leann Burns, Southern Sunshine is part of a field of nine in the ninth of 10 races at Remington Park on Friday. The program begins at 7 p.m. Eastern. Wagering is available through DRFBets.com.

Southern Sunshine drew post 5 and will have one of her chief rivals to her inside in I Am Valiant, who is trained by Josue Ponce.

I Am Valiant has not raced since a fourth-place finish in a division of the Evangeline Downs Futurity trials in Louisiana last November. I Am Valiant won a 250-yard maiden race at Lone Star Park last October, his only victory in three starts.

There are four fillies in the field. Apollitical Snow, who drew the outside post, is the only runner in the field with a victory at the current Remington Park winter-spring meeting, which began March 6.

Apollitical Snow won a maiden special weight race at 400 yards on March 20 in his second start of the year. Trained by Marcos Carrizales, Apollitical Snow was fifth in a division of the Oklahoma Derby trials on March 8 after a poor start.

The filly Separate Party will have her 2020 debut. She finished ninth in the $396,650 Oklahoma Futurity at Remington Park in March 2019 and was fourth in a division of the Heritage Place Futurity trials last May in her only subsequent start.