Turf-loving Choose Joy in razor-sharp form
Choose Joy, a nose and a neck away from being perfect in five starts on turf, is clearly the one to beat in the $60,000 Village of Biscayne Park, an overnight handicap that will serve as the feature race Sunday at Gulfstream Park.
The five-furlong race drew eight horses for turf. Gitana and Crumb Bun will start if the race is moved to the main track. It goes as race 10 on an 11-race program that begins at 12:50 p.m. Eastern.
Choose Joy, trained by Steven Dwoskin has been assigned high weight of 125 pounds, which is one more than she carried in her win in a similar race July 31. It was her first start since she finished a neck behind Lagertha at the same level on May 30, so she has a right to move forward in her second start back.
The 4-year-old Kentucky-bred daughter of Munnings was coming off back-to-back double-digit losses going a mile in $62,500 optional-claiming races before she turned things around with a narrow loss in her first try on turf going five furlongs in a $62,500 optional race with a myriad of conditions on Jan. 10. She showed her improved performance was no fluke when she got up in time to win a similar race by a neck a month later.
Following a fourth-place finish in a race washed off the lawn in her next start, she came from last to capture the $60,000 Golden Beach on May 2.
With two sharp works following her latest win, in which she sat just off the speed, she appears to be primed for another strong effort. She also will have speed to run at and should get the right kind of trip after breaking from post 4 with Miguel Vasquez retaining the mount.
The Victor Barboza Jr.-trained Reinagol will try to make amends for her sixth-place finish as the favorite in the same race Choose Joy exits.
A 3-year-old daughter of Shanghai Bobby, Reinagol went into the race off an easy win going five furlongs on turf in a first-level allowance race with a $75,000 claiming option on May 2.
Reinagol was facing older fillies and mares for the first time in her latest start. She has speed, but can stalk, and was taken out of her game when she broke last leaving from the inside post in the eight-horse field.
She could be dangerous if she breaks alertly from the outside post with leading rider Edgard Zayas aboard.
Cat’s Astray, trained by Juan Arias, inherited the lead when Reinagol broke poorly and she held on well to finish a half-length behind Choose Joy. However, she drifted off the rail turning for home and then cut off Lagertha when she moved back toward the rail in deep stretch. Following a stewards’ inquiry and jockey’s claim of foul, she was placed third.