Twirling Queen ($38.20) regains winning form in Captiva Island
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HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The 18-1 Twirling Queen showed she was back on top of her game while leading a parade of longshots across the finish line, registering a 1 1/2-length victory over the 32-1 Me Governor in Saturday’s $125,000 Captiva Island Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
The race was switched from turf to the synthetic Tapeta track due to heavy rains earlier in the week.
Twirling Queen entered the Captiva Island with just a single win in eight starts since capturing the SK Maddy Stakes over the Del Mar turf course more than 16 months ago. She also had a fourth-place finish behind the odds-on Moon Spun in the Lady’s Turf Sprint making her 2026 debut here five weeks ago.
With Luis Saez, who rode her to victory in the 2024 SK Maddy, back aboard, Twirling Queen was hustled along to hold a slight edge over the 6-5 Moon Spun in the run down the backstretch. Twirling Queen disposed of the favorite after three furlongs, settled into the stretch with a clear lead, then maintained a safe advantage under vigorous handling to the end.
Me Governor raced forwardly placed and outlasted the 15-1 Coco Abarrio by a neck to finish second with the 14-1 Flamingo Way checking in a wide-running fourth.
Moon Spun won both the Lady’s Turf Sprint and Abundantia stakes on grass earlier in the meet. But she is not as experienced or proficient on Tapeta as turf, giving way steadily down the lane to finish a disappointing eighth in a field of 10 older fillies and mare.
Twirling Queen, trained by Jose D’Angelo for owner Hernan Gomez, completed five furlongs in 56.08 seconds and paid $38.20. She gave Saez his third victory on the card and keyed a superfecta with her three fellow longshots that returned $1,329.89 for just a $.10 wager.
“I don’t think it mattered for her whether she ran on turf or the Tapeta today,” D’Angelo said. “Last year there was nothing wrong with her health, but it was hard to keep her happy. She was sour. So I took my time with her, gave her some time off and when I ran her last time (Lady’s Turf Sprint) she was not 100 percent fit.”
But D’Angelo said he had noticed a change in his filly since returning from her layoff.
“She was happy and working perfect again, just like two years ago,” D’Angelo said. “The plan was to send her to the lead and when she closed that other horse out (Moon Spun) coming to the stretch, I thought we were going to have a very good chance to win.”
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