Turf sprinter Beantown Baby will try Tapeta for the first time

Beantown Baby will encounter something new Friday when she makes her synthetic track debut in the third race at Gulfstream Park.

The turf-sprint specialist is moving to Tapeta for the $20,000 starter allowance for fillies and mares that carries an optional claiming price of $35,000. It will be run over 5 1/2 furlongs. The race opens the Rainbow 6 jackpot wager, a 20-cent bet that on Friday will have a minimum guaranteed pool of $125,000.

Beantown Baby has registered all seven of her wins on the grass. But with no turf racing this meet, the honest mare is trying something new.

“Her turf races are good, so we’ll see,” said Ralph Nicks, who trains Beantown Baby for Team Valor International.

Nicks said he’s found that most turf horses he’s had tend to transition well to racing on synthetic tracks.

“Some don’t,” he said. “Certain horses with certain kind of action handle it a little better.

“It’s similar to turf in that it brings the fields closer together. To me, with the synthetic and turf, the synthetic can fool you where horses really fit. Instead of getting beat 10 lengths, they get beat five lengths.”

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Beantown Baby last raced in March, winning a $35,000 claiming turf sprint at Gulfstream. The Florida-bred will be making her first start for Nicks on Friday, remaining in her homestate for Team Valor after trainer Dale Romans returned to Kentucky.

“We just got her – Dale had her all winter,” Nicks said. “We’ve had her about six weeks. She’s just easy to train, and looks honest. She’s pretty straightforward.”

Beantown Baby is 7 for 19 in her career and has earned $223,174. The daughter of Artie Schiller will break from post 4 under Edwin Gonzalez.

The field of seven Friday includes David’s Rose, who breaks from the rail. She is moving back to the distance of her Tapeta win May 19 at Gulfstream.

Nikee Kan will get good support off a third-place finish at this level June 17 at Gulfstream. The six-time winner has registered five of her victories on turf with the other coming on Tapeta in December at Gulfstream.

Nikee Kan has a half-sister, Hits Different, running in the fifth race Friday at Gulfstream. Both siblings are half-sisters to Yes I Am Free, a multiple Grade 3 winner who earned $650,000. Nikee Kan is 8 and Hits Different is 3.

In the sixth race, Heals the Soul is looking to become the sixth next-out winner to emerge from an April 29 race at Gulfstream. He finished fourth in the $10,000 claiming sprint on Tapeta and now moves back to the main track for the first-level allowance sprint for 3-year-olds and up bred in Florida.

◗ Jockey Edgard Zayas rides Friday at Gulfstream, then heads to Saratoga to ride in the Grade 3, $175,000 Sanford on Saturday, according to agent Tito Fuentes. Zayas will be back at Gulfstream on Sunday. Last weekend, the rider had a number of stakes mounts at Prairie Meadows.

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