Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
First Mondays headed north in search of bigger game
With a couple of eye-catching performances at Gulfstream Park under his belt, First Mondays will soon leave South Florida to get his first test in much tougher company.
Trainer John Servis said First Mondays is scheduled to be shipped next weekend from the Palm Meadows training center to his main base at Parx Racing in suburban Philadelphia, where the 3-year-old colt will train toward the Grade 3, $300,000 Smarty Jones on Aug. 25. A good effort could then lead to a start in the Grade 1, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby on Sept. 22 at Parx.
First Mondays, a Marylandbred chestnut son of Curlin, is unbeaten in two starts. He won a six-furlong maiden race on June 28 by 3 3/4 lengths, earning a 78 Beyer Speed Figure, then upped the ante by winning a one-mile allowance race last Sunday by 1 3/4 lengths for an 83 Beyer. Roberto Alvarado Jr. was aboard for both starts.
First Mondays was a $450,000 yearling purchase at FasigTipton Timonium in October 2016 by Glenangus Farm LLC, the nom de course of the Dresher family of Harford County, Md.
Filly bred to be a good one
Full Swing, a daughter of Coolmore’s freshman stallion Verrazano, will debut at a mile on turf Sunday at Gulfstream Park. The maiden special weight for 2-year-old fillies goes as the seventh race and Edgard Zayas has the mount from post 2.
Full Swing shares some ties with Verrazano, a multiple Grade 1 winner of $1.8 million whose biggest victories came in the Wood Memorial and Haskell. Verrazano was co-owned by Michael Tabor – who races Full Swing – and was trained in North America by Todd Pletcher – who conditions Full Swing.
Full Swing is out of the mare Excited, who won the Grade 3 Virginia Oaks in 2011 for Tabor and Pletcher. The race was one of two turf route stakes she captured, the other being the $50,000 Hilltop at Pimlico. Excited has produced a stakes winner in Thrilled, who in 2015 won her career debut at 1 1/16 miles on turf at Saratoga. Thrilled’s biggest win came in the $200,000 Plum Pretty, a dirt route at Sunland Park. She raced for Tabor and was trained by Pletcher.
Full Swing is part of a full field of 10 horses on Sunday. Others set to start include Hot Fudge Honey, who will start as a top choice off a runner-up finish against $50,000 maidenclaiming sprinters July 19 at Gulfstream. The Beyer Speed Figure of 59 that Hot Fudge Honey earned is the best number in the field Sunday. The race also drew a pair of firsttime starters by The Factor, Sweet Blossom and Uncommon Factor.
Verrazano’s current top runner is Myhotrodlincoln, according to the Coolmore website. Myhotrodlincoln has run second in both of his starts, including the Kentucky Juvenile Stakes at Churchill Downs. The horse was freshened after that race by trainer Todd Fincher.
12 races on tap Sunday
A pair of allowance sprints for fillies and mares highlight a 12-race Sunday card that brings another race week to an end at Gulfstream.
Race 5 is scheduled for five furlongs on turf, while race 10, restricted to Florida-breds, goes at six furlongs on the main track. The second allowance is part of a Rainbow 6 sequence that spans races 7-12 and had a carryover jackpot of $627,139 when racing began Friday. First post is 12:45 p.m. Eastern.
After Sunday, Gulfstream goes dark for three days before another four-day race week resumes Thursday.