HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Todd Pletcher has dominated the Grade 3 Canadian Turf at Gulfstream Park, having won the race a record seven times, including the past two renewals with Emmanuel. On Saturday, the Hall of Fame trainer will attempt to add to that mark when sending out Major Dude against nine rivals in one of the more wide-open handicapping challenges on the Fountain of Youth program.
Last September, Chasing Liberty’s connections were the beneficiaries of an incredibly lucrative – and warranted – disqualification. Second across the wire in a $1 million race, Chasing Liberty was placed first when Under Who’s Radar was taken down. The winner’s share of the purse was roughly $600,000, about $400,000 more than a second-place finish would’ve netted.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It was the best of times, it was the worst of times on Fountain of Youth day a year ago for trainer Todd Pletcher. The Hall of Fame trainer sent out four winners on the Gulfstream Park card only to have that success tempered when his two entrants, Locked and Speak Easy, were scratched from the Fountain of Youth the day of the race, Speak Easy after running off and injuring himself in the post parade.
At 10-1, Volleyballprincess won the Ruthless Stakes by 10 lengths. She will not be getting the same setup Saturday in the $200,000 Busher Invitational.
Volleyballprincess meets more horses, better horses, and horses quicker out of the gate in the Busher, a one-turn mile that’s part of Churchill Downs’s Road to the Kentucky Oaks. The Busher winner earns 50 Oaks qualifying points, likely enough to make the 14-runner field.
Will any of these 3-year-old fillies actually turn out to be qualified Oaks contenders? Not yet, but not impossible.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Joe Benight and Eugenia Thompson-Benight are already winners going into the $150,000 Downthedustyroad on Saturday at Oaklawn Park no matter how Haulin Ice or Q’s Your Mama run in the six-furlong stakes for fillies and mares bred in Arkansas.
“We’ll be rooting for both of them, for sure,” Eugenia Thompson-Benight said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – A gaping void in the California handicap division will be filled Saturday by two prominent shippers who face an unassuming field of locals in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap.
Locked and Hit Show arrived this week from Florida, and they start as top choices in the 1 1/4-mile Big Cap. The locals include longshot front-runner Mirahmadi; 2022 Big Cap winner Express Train; and graded winners J B Strikes Back and Katonah. New King, Tarantino, and Midnight Mammoth also are entered.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Chad Brown will send out Tax Implications in his quest for a fourth straight victory in the Grade 3 Honey Fox Stakes for fillies and mares going one mile on turf at Gulfstream Park.
In her last start, Tax Implications was beaten 1 1/4 lengths when rallying from next-to-last of 11 to finish fourth behind Sacred Wish in the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes at Del Mar in December. Sacred Wish came back to finish second, beaten a neck by Be Your Best in the Grade 2 Pegasus Filly and Mare Turf at Gulfstream on Jan. 25.
As a stalker, Rashmi has been unbeatable in California since early November.
Rashmi won the Grade 3 Megahertz Stakes for fillies and mares at one mile on turf on Feb. 1 by racing from slightly off the pace, and has an outstanding chance to do the same in Saturday’s Grade 2 Buena Vista Stakes for fillies and mares at one mile on turf at Santa Anita.
“I would hope to have that kind of trip,” trainer Jonathan Thomas said. “That would be more consistent with her style. She can be tactical.”
There’s too much to say about these races to meander through a preamble. Let’s get to it.
Fountain of Youth
Trainer Ian Wilkes this week said he believed rising 3-year-old Burnham Square would benefit from – gasp! – a regular monthly racing schedule this winter and spring.
Mr. Wilkes! Such things are not done!
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It was early on the 2024 Florida Derby day card at Gulfstream Park when a then-unraced 3-year-old named Mindframe burst onto the scene with scintillating 13 3-4/-length debut victory.
Ten weeks later, Mindframe, in just his third career start, came within a half-length of winning the Belmont Stakes, losing to longshot Dornoch. Following another runner-up finish to Dornoch in the Grade 1 Haskell at Monmouth Park in July, Mindframe was sidelined with bone bruising, putting an end to an exciting, if unfulfilling, 3-year-old season.
