Stunner lands nice spot for comeback race

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The final week of the 2025-26 Gulfstream Park Championship meet, which features Saturday’s outstanding Florida Derby program, will kick off Thursday with a 10-race offering that features the return of multiple graded stakes-placed Stunner in an $87,000 allowance and high-priced optional-claiming feature for older fillies and mares to be decided at six furlongs on the main track.

Stunner has not started since finishing a disappointing eighth as the tepid favorite in the Grade 3 Miss Preakness Stakes last spring at Pimlico. A stakes winner at 2, Stunner will return locally for the first time since finishing second to her fast-closing stablemate Eclatant in the Grade 3 Forward Gal Stakes here 14 months ago. In her only other South Florida appearance, Stunner was second, beaten a neck by My Denysse, as the prohibitive 1-5 favorite in the 1 1/16-mile My Dear Girl division of the Florida Sire Series in November 2024.

Trained by Brad Cox, Stunner has worked six times at Payson Park in preparation for her return. She will be reunited with jockey Edgard Zayas, who rode her in the My Dear Girl.

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“We’re really excited to get her going. She needed a break, although it took her a little more time than we’d expected to get her back going again,” Cox said. “But she’s doing great and has always been a very good work horse, so I think she’s pretty tight, pretty fit for her return.”

Stunner will face just five rivals in her comeback, each of whom also will be looking for their first wins of the season. The group is led by the graded stakes-placed Anna’s Promise, runner-up a year ago in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Oaks.

The lineup also includes American Women, Miss Enchanted, Luz de La Luna, and Secret Revenge.

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