Allowance races spice up card

A pair of first-level allowance races on turf share the spotlight at Gulfstream Park Thursday. Fillies and mares will get the nine-race card underway at approximately 2 p.m. Eastern in race 1, and Florida-bred 3-yearolds and up meet in race 7.

Race 1, a 1 1/16-mile race with a $25,000 claiming option, drew eight horses for turf. Princess Victoria and Swiss Alps will run if the race is moved to the main track. It appears to be a wide-open event.

Athera will be among the favorites in the first race. She is a four-time winner on the Gulfstream turf course and is coming off a third-place finish in a $25,000 turf sprint at Belmont Park on July 5 for trainer Patrick Reynolds, In her previous start she rallied to win a $16,000 claimer going 7 1/2 furlongs at Gulfstream on March 25 for trainer Angel Rodriguez. On Thursday, Athera will be making her first start for trainer Jose Gallegos.

Athera is versatile, and if she breaks alertly from her outside post she should be able to sit just off what figures to be a moderate pace. Emisael Jaramillo rides.

Star’s Bella Vita will be the one they have to run down. The 6-year-old Kentuckybred daughter of Bernstein is a three-time winner on turf, and in her last start she set the pace before finishing seventh in a $40,000 claimer at Churchill Downs on June 17 for trainer Neil Howard. She will be making her first start for trainer Edward Plesa when she breaks from the inside post with Chuck Lopez aboard.

Lafta hasn’t raced since she finished second in an allowance race going a mile on soft turf at Craon Racecourse in France on Sept. 25. She is a half-sister to the Grade 2-placed multiple stakes winner Mamdooha, and has been training forwardly while preparing her first North American start and first for trainer Patrick Biancone.

Go Gone Gone looks like the one to beat in race 7, an optional $16,000 claimer at five furlongs. There are other contenders, though, and it would be hard to single the race in the Rainbow 6, which has a $589,473 jackpot carryover.

Go Gone Gone, trained by Gerald Procino, set fast fractions and kept rolling when he won an optional $16,000 claimer with first-level allowance conditions for Florida-breds July 12. He was making his first start for Procino, who had claimed him out of a third-place finish behind Federal Reserve in a $10,000 claimer June 22.

He could be gone if he breaks on top with Luca Panici retaining the mount.

Federal Reserve might keep Go Gone Gone honest. If an allout duel develops, Very Colorful and Harry’s Gone Gray appear to have the best chances of picking up the pieces.