Trio of last-out winners meet in turf sprint
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Racing resumes here Wednesday with an abbreviated eight-race program topped by a five-furlong turf allowance dash for 3-year-old fillies.
The headliner lured a field of 10, featuring a trio of last out winners, Alternate Rock, Sure Can, and Shez Speightful, along with the speedy Sassy Nature who will make her local and turf debut after showing promise launching her career in Southern California.
Alternate Rock was stakes-placed on grass at 2 when second in the Colleen at Monmouth Park. Her most recent victory was arguably her best effort yet, a game head decision in a race restricted to Florida-breds run over the Tapeta course for which she received a career-high 76 Beyer Speed Figure.
Both Sure Can and Shez Speightful are coming off maiden wins, with Sure Can graduating over the local turf course with a popular neck decision on Jan. 27 and Shez Speightful earning her diploma on the synthetic strip nine days earlier.
Sassy Nature earned far and away the highest Beyer Figure of any member of this lineup, an 88, when registering a one-sided nine-length maiden win against California-breds at Santa Anita in her 3-year-old debut. Her breeding suggests she should handle the grass. She is out of Renee’s Queen, a sprint stakes winner on turf during her career, and is a half-sister to turf winner Suspect. Sassy Nature is trained locally by Jack Sisterson.
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