Sunny Isle Beach has one question to answer in Wednesday feature

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Sunny Isle Beach has done something none of the others entered in Wednesday’s $38,000 main event at Gulfstream Park has done. She’s already won three races.

All three of her victories have come on dirt, and the question Wednesday is if Sunny Isle Beach can win over the turf as well.

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Wednesday’s headliner is carded under starter-allowance conditions for 3-year-old fillies who have run for a $50,000 claiming tag or who are entered for $50,000 in this race, and it will be decided at one mile on the turf, weather permitting. There was an 80 percent chance of rain in the forecast for the local area on Tuesday and 50 percent chance on Wednesday. California invader Chevelita is the only member of the 11 entered to have been designated to run only if the race is run on the main track.

Sunny Isle Beach was claimed for $40,000 out of a win at Keeneland on Oct. 23. She had won her maiden at first asking several months earlier competing against $75,000 claiming rivals at Churchill Downs. She has started twice since shipping to South Florida for the winter, capturing a starter allowance similar to Wednesday’s feature going a mile over the main track here to close out her 2-year-old campaign before finishing third at 4-5 facing virtually the same kind five weeks later.

Sunny Isle Beach has tried turf once, finishing a distant fourth behind the heavily favored winner Golden Pal in the Skidmore Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 21. She is by Jimmy Creed out of a Kitten’s Joy mare whose three previous foals to make the races have all won on grass. Sunny Isle Beach is trained by the red-hot Danny Gargan, who sports better than a 40 percent success rate during the Championship meet.

Trainer Todd Pletcher will send out a pair of top candidates in Coworth Park and My Miss Miracle, who is one of two members of the field competing for the $50,000 claiming tag along with Gambling Cat. Coworth Park has not started since registering an easy 2 3/4-length victory going a mile and one-sixteenth over the turf against $25,000 platers here on Dec. 23. My Miss Miracle won her only start, getting up in the final strides to defeat maiden $35,000 claiming foes on Dec. 18.

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Gambling Cat debuted impressively, defeating maiden special weight opposition going one mile over the Belmont turf course on Sept. 20 while earning a 73 Beyer Speed Figure. She has not run back to that effort in three subsequent outings, but will be getting significant class relief in this spot.

Sexy Dream has improved from a Beyer standpoint with each start and is a half-sister to multiple Grade 1 winner Jackson Bend, although she’s yet run on grass. Her dam, Sexy Stockings, has yet to produce a foal who has won over that surface.

A switch to the main track would likely give Chevelita the edge in her East Coast debut for trainer Bob Hess Jr. Chevelita is coming off an impressive $40,000 maiden-claiming victory last month at Santa Anita while racing with Lasix and stretching to a mile for the first time.