Wedding Dress well spotted for return in turf allowance

MIAMI – Wedding Dress showed enough promise early in her career to merit an opportunity to run against Grade 3 competition last winter at Gulfstream Park, and she returns to South Florida against much easier opposition when she faces seven rivals in Saturday’s $34,000 feature at Gulfstream Park West. The entry-level allowance for fillies and mares will be decided at 1 1/16 miles on turf.

Wedding Dress, a homebred daughter of the graded stakes winner Raw Silk, is trained by Tom Albertrani for Godolphin Racing. She began her career in August 2015 when she outran her 32-1 odds by finishing second while beaten just a neck by Silky Girl in a maiden special weight race at Saratoga. She proved that effort was no fluke five weeks later by rallying from well back to win her maiden going a mile on grass at Belmont Park.

Those two performances earned Wedding Dress a pair of stakes starts. She finished sixth after contesting the pace in Belmont’s Chelsey Flower to conclude her 2-year-old campaign, and eighth behind runaway winner Catch a Glimpse in the Grade 3 Herecomesthebride when launching her 3-year-old season last February at Gulfstream.

Wedding Dress has made only two subsequent starts, both at Saratoga, finishing sixth after hitting the gate at the start in a high-priced optional-claiming race for 3-year-old fillies, and ninth after an awkward start against older females on Aug. 27. Wedding Dress has worked three times since shipping to Palm Meadows in October, each time over the main track.

Trainer Todd Pletcher will counter with the speedy Fifth and Madison, who makes both her turf and two-turn debut on Saturday and should be the one to catch if able to handle the surface change. Fifth and Madison has failed to repeat her well-graded maiden win this summer at Monmouth Park in three subsequent tries. She is a half-sister to the stakes-placed duo of Fordubai and Fast Alex.

Other contenders include the steadily improving Miss Dude, lightly raced Byegone Days, and recent claiming winner Marmalade.

Race 9

Key Contenders

Wedding Dress, by Medaglia d’Oro

Last 3 Beyers: 76-72-68

◗ Although unplaced in her last four starts, her Beyer numbers continue to progress, with her most recent effort resulting in the highest figure of her six-race career.

Fifth and Madison, by Street Sense

Last 3 Beyers: 62-59-62

FORMULATOR FACT: Pletcher has had pretty good success when switching horses from dirt to turf, winning with 55 of 321 (17 percent) over the past five years, with a return on investment of $1.75.