Spanish Harlem may find grass future in Christmas Past

Spanish Harlem may be more accomplished on dirt than on turf at this point in her career. But her trainer, Armando De la cerda, still thinks she might have a future on grass, a theory he’ll test, weather permitting, in Thursday’s $75,000 Christmas Past Stakes at Gulfstream Park.

Thursday’s main event is carded at a mile on the grass for fillies and mares who have not won a stakes in 2018. It lured a field of nine, including main-track-only entrant Doritza. The turf course has been closed for business recently due to the heavy rain that has pelted the area for more than a week, although confidence was high the Christmas Past will go as scheduled on the grass.

Spanish Harlem is coming into the Christmas Past off an extremely impressive six-length victory over the main track in an optional claimer at seven furlongs on May 10. The outing was the first for the daughter of More Than Ready since finishing a troubled eighth on turf in the Tropical Oaks three months earlier. Before that she was second in the Cellars Shiraz on turf at Gulfstream Park West.

“I want to give her one more chance on grass, because in her last try the favorite broke down right in front of her going into the first turn, she had to alter course, and it pretty much took her out of the race,” said De la cerda, who also entered the 3-year-old Mahvelous Kitten in the Christmas Past. “I just decided to give her a little time off after that. But her previous start on the turf at Gulfstream Park West was a good one, so she deserves another chance on grass. If she doesn’t run any good on Thursday, which would surprise me, I’ll just put her back on dirt.”

De la cerda, who acknowledged he obviously would have no problem were the Christmas Past to be moved to the main track, said he was still uncertain if Mahvelous Kitten would start.

“I put her in just in case there wasn’t enough speed in the field,” said De la cerda, who is right in the thick of the battle for leading trainer honors at the spring meet.

“But that shouldn’t be an issue, and she is a 3-year-old going up against older horses, so there’s a good chance I might take her out and look for something a little easier for her.”

Conquest Hardcandy is winless since April 2017, but she may be the one to beat coming off a second-place finish behind longshot Susie Bee in the Powder Break overnight stakes April 28. Conquest Hardcandy forced the early pace and moved clear through midstretch before succumbing to the winner in a race decided on a course rated good.

Lipstick City and Josdesanimaux, the third- and fourth-place finishers in the Powder Break, also return Thursday, and like Conquest Hardcandy they won stakes earlier in their careers. The stretch-running Lipstick City looks the more dangerous of the two, making the third start of her form cycle, since being transferred to trainer David Fawkes’s barn earlier this year.

Lover’s Key figures to give Conquest Hardcandy an early run for her money while returning to her favorite course off a second-place finish under mid-level optional claiming conditions going one mile at Tampa Bay Downs five weeks ago. She, too, is a stakes winner, having beaten statebred opposition last summer on the grass at Saratoga.