Whoever makes the lead may stay there
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HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Figuring out who will set the pace may go a long way to figuring out who will win Friday’s $52,000 allowance feature at Gulfstream Park. The race will be decided by fillies and mares going a mile and 70 yards on the Tapeta track.
Only six horses were entered, none of whom have seen the lead during the early stages in any of their most recent starts. The most likely to try to take advantage of the lack of pace in this lineup are Free Data, Ocean Safari, and Pens Street. Pens Street is a bit of a question mark as she will be trying a synthetic track for the first time.
Free Data made the lead in a couple of races earlier in her career, although that strategy didn’t work on either occasion, ultimately fading to fifth- and sixth-place finishes in slightly softer allowance events a year ago. The best races on her form have been from off the pace, including two starts back when she rallied to finish a well graded second under similar allowance conditions as Friday’s headliner at a mile on the grass. Like Pens Street, Free Data also is inexperienced on synthetic tracks, having gone winless in four previous tries over the surface.
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Ocean Safari is the only stakes winner in the field, having captured the Honey Ryder on the turf here last May during her 3-year-old campaign. She’s been idle since finishing ninth and last after trailing throughout in the five-furlong Abundantia on the grass in late December. In her only previous start on Tapeta, she finished third as the 6-5 favorite, earning a modest 52 Beyer Speed Figure when making just her third lifetime start and 2-year-old finale in the fall of 2021.
Pens Street has been a forward factor on occasion in races carded at a mile on dirt and has worked a couple of times on the Tapeta recently in preparation for her synthetic debut. She is one of only two four-time winners in this lineup, her most recent triumph coming at seven furlongs over a sloppy strip against mid-level conditioned claiming competition.
Love Her Lots and Empress Ellie have plenty of history against one another and are the only members of this lineup who have won on Tapeta, a fact that will likely find them vying for favoritism despite the uncertain pace scenario.
Love Her Lots returns to the allowance ranks after finishing fifth in the Monroe Stakes on turf May 8 and has won two of her last four tries over the Tapeta track. Empress Ellie steps up in class after trouncing cheaper company by nearly 10 lengths while earning a career-high 82 Beyer Speed Figure over the Tapeta making her 2023 debut on May 5. Empress Ellie defeated Love Her Lots by nearly three lengths when the pair last met in August.
Ocean Safari will be ridden in the main event by the red-hot Edgard Zayas, whose four victories Sunday included the afternoon’s co-featured Soldier’s Dancer and Ginger Punch stakes aboard Me and Mr. C and Tamarindo, respectively. It was the second four-bagger in three days for Zayas, who has ridden 14 winners since returning to the saddle May 21 following nearly a one month’s absence due to a fractured jaw suffered in a frightening spill here April 24.
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