A Thread of Blue won't be easy to catch in Palm Beach Stakes

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – No doubt that the 3-year-olds who’ll clash in the Fountain of Youth and Davona Dale merit top billing Saturday at Gulfstream Park – but their turf counterparts are deserving of a little love, too.

Lineups of eight 3-year-olds apiece are the grassy alternatives to the day’s main attractions, and both the Palm Beach and Herecomesthebride have their own set of variables that fans will find worth mulling over. Both are Grade 3, $150,000 races at 1 1/16 miles, with Chad Brown conspicuously absent from one and in-your-face dominant in the other.

Brown has no entry in the Palm Beach, leaving A Thread of Blue as the obvious horse to beat for Kiaran McLaughlin. In the Herecomesthebride for fillies, Brown has the trio of Golconda, Cambier Parc, and Connectivity, while his former longtime assistant, Cherie DeVaux, has one of the top challengers in Primela.

Palm Beach (race 4)

A Thread of Blue has proven uncatchable and unbeatable in two starts over the Gulfstream turf this winter, as the Hard Spun colt led throughout a Dec. 22 allowance and the Feb. 3 Dania Beach. McLaughlin, obviously, wouldn’t mind seeing more of the same.

“He’s training very well and loves the turf course,” he said.

Only one opponent, King Ottokar, a last-out maiden winner, appears to have the kind of speed to keep A Thread of Blue honest out front.

“He doesn’t have to be on the lead, but if he breaks well and he’s there, great,” McLaughlin said. “If somebody else goes, we can sit second or third.”

If by chance a ruinous pace develops, then the logical closers in the field will suddenly have much better chances. They are Louder Than Bombs, who picks up Irad Ortiz Jr. off a runner-up effort in the Dania Beach, and Casa Creed, a two-back winner of the Jan. 5 Kitten’s Joy for trainer Bill Mott.

With four poor efforts sandwiched around two rousing victories, Casa Creed has been very difficult for bettors to gauge. He was never a factor when sixth in the Dania Beach.

“He got away bad, and nobody was really making up any ground,” Mott said. “It was just an off day for him. Hopefully, he’s got a better one in him than he did in his last performance.”

The Palm Beach is part of Gulfstream’s winter series of divisional races that ends with the Cutler Bay on the March 30 Florida Derby undercard.

Herecomesthebride (race 8)

As most everyone knows, Brown has become a tour de force in recent years with turf fillies – and his show of strength in the Herecomesthebride entry box suggests that 2019 will be no different.

Not only were Cambier Parc and Connectivity each an eye-catching winner of a two-turn maiden race over the Gulfstream turf in January, but Golconda carries that certain stamp that has become a Brown trademark – European import getting first-time Lasix off a series of sharp morning works. Brown shows positive numbers (29 percent wins and a $2.28 ROI) with horses making their first start for him.

So, even knowing nothing else, fans are likely to make Golconda their favorite. Javier Castellano will be aboard when the French-bred filly breaks from post 6.

As alternatives to the Brown trio, there’s Primela, a gray French-bred also getting first Lasix, and a couple of fillies making their first start since finishing well behind the Brown-trained Newspaperofrecord in the Nov. 2 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies: Belle Laura, trained by Norm Casse, and My Gal Betty, trained by Roger Attfield.

The Gulfstream winter series in this division ends with the Sanibel Island on Florida Derby Day.