Trio of 3-year-old co-features will keep handicappers occupied

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Three-year-olds are generally the focus, year in and year out, during the Gulfstream Park Championship meet. Friday’s card is a case in point and features a diverse trio of allowance races in the division, the first over the Tapeta course, the final pair to be decided, weather permitting, at distances of five furlongs and 1 1/16 miles on the turf.

A full field of a dozen 3-year-old fillies, plus a couple more looking to draw in off the also-eligible list, should provide handicappers with their most serious challenge of the afternoon in the eighth race. With nary a standout in the bunch, the four horses sporting the best last-out Beyer Speed Figures are separated by only two points. Three of them, Macanga, Escape Room, and Dynamic Pricing, could be post position-challenged having drawn on the outside in posts 9, 10, and 11, respectively.

Macanga tops the field from a Beyer standpoint, having posted a career-best 75 while wiring a full field of maiden special weight rivals making her turf and two-turn debut on Dec. 10. The biggest question mark moving forward is whether she can get loose as readily on the front end while stepping up against winners for the first time Friday.

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Both Escape Room and Dynamic Pricing were awarded 73 Beyers for their juvenile finales. Escape Room finished second behind the heavy favorite Time to Dazzle under entry-level allowance conditions in a race switched from turf to Tapeta. Dynamic Pricing won her career debut going 1 1/16 miles on the grass at Aqueduct on Nov. 4. The performance was flattered when runner-up Way to Be Marie and also-ran Style Point returned in their next starts to defeat maiden special weight opposition on grass, at the Fair Grounds and Gulfstream, respectively.

Golden Ghost, another with a 73 Beyer on her résumé for winning her maiden going a mile on the grass at Del Mar five weeks earlier, got the best of the draw among the logical favorites. The well-bred daughter of Medaglia d’Oro out of the Group 1-winning mare Villa Marina will break from post 2 and figures forwardly placed throughout under jockey Paco Lopez.

The red-hot Brian Lynch, who won three more races on Sunday and has 10 wins, second only to Saffie Joseph Jr. in the trainer standings, appears to hold another strong hand in the sixth event. Lynch has two of the seven entered in the five-furlong turf dash – last-out maiden winner Silent Heart and the stakes-tested Double Your Money, who finished fifth while beaten only a length despite some traffic issues in the 7 1/2-furlong Pulpit Stakes on the turf here Dec. 9.

Esperon and King of the Track will renew acquaintances after crossing the finish line first and third under similar conditions on Dec. 21. Esperon, who went postward at odds of 26-1, was ultimately disqualified and placed second for bearing out and causing interference in late stretch. They project as key players in the race along with King Skull and Banneker.

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General Ledger and Prevent, who finished fourth and sixth in the Pulpit, will get some class relief facing Florida-breds in the first of the three co-features on the afternoon. General Ledger rallied from off the lead to a narrow advantage through midstretch before succumbing grudgingly in the final yards. Prevent was hard-used contesting the pace into the stretch while making his turf bow.

General Ledger may give handicappers some pause as he is making his first start on Tapeta. Prevent is already a winner over the surface, as are key contenders Reef Runner, Sabian, and Zio Lorenzo.

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