Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Competing stakes might force new date for Princess Rooney
The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc with stakes schedules throughout the country and could also ultimately impact the marquee event on Gulfstream Park’s summer program, the Summit of Speed, which features the Grade 2 Princess Rooney, a Win and You’re In race for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.
After traditionally being held during the final week of June or early July since its inception at Calder Race Course 20 years ago, the Summit of Speed was moved to Sept. 5 in 2020. Then came the pandemic and with it major movement of stakes around the country, most notably the Kentucky Derby, which now also will be decided Sept. 5 along with a star-studded undercard that is likely to include the seven-furlong Grade 1 Humana Distaff for fillies and mares. In addition, the Grade 2, six-furlong Honorable Miss will now be run the following day, on Sept. 6, at Saratoga. Both of those races attract horses from the same pool of talent as the $300,000 Princess Rooney.
“It was a killer for us when the Derby moved,” Gulfstream Park vice president of racing Mike Lakow said. “We had the perfect spot for the Princess Rooney on Sept. 5 between both of NYRA’s six-furlong filly and mare sprints. Then they switched the Derby, and while it is still not yet official, Churchill will run the Humana Distaff that same day, it seems likely. That would not only put us in direct competition with that race, a Grade 1, but we’d also have no chance of having any of the nation’s prominent riders come down here for the Princess Rooney that day because they’ll all be at Churchill Downs for the Derby. In addition, Saratoga has reinvented their stakes schedule, putting us right up against the Honorable Miss as well.”
Lakow said track management is considering several options for the Summit of Speed that could include moving the Princess Rooney forward to earlier in the summer or even pushing it back several weeks into the fall. The Grade 3 Smile, a sprint for 3-year-olds and up also on the Summit of Speed card, will probably stay on Sept. 5, Lakow said.
“We just feel the Princess Rooney is such an important race for Florida racing, we just want to protect its Grade 2 status while doing right by the horsemen and the event itself,” he said.
Lakow said he continues to be pleased with the way business has held up at Gulfstream even after most of the nation’s premier racetracks reopened for business over the past several weeks.
“Our handle has been up every day over the previous year,” Lakow said. “Plus the decision to change the distance of 1 1/16-mile races to a mile when they come off the turf has seemed to help us from the standpoint of entries. We’re also looking forward to the next mandatory payout of the Rainbow 6, which will be on Tuesday, June 30, the final day of the fiscal year in Florida.”
Among the new stakes Lakow added to the spring-summer session is Saturday’s $60,000 Added Elegance, carded at one mile for fillies and mares. The Added Elegance attracted 23 nominations, including the multiple graded stakes-placed Nonna Madeline, who trainer Todd Pletcher confirmed Monday would start.
The most prominent name on the nomination list is that of Arindel’s graded stakes winner Cookie Dough, who recently returned from a freshening on the farm and is now trained by Juan Alvarado. Cookie Dough breezed four furlongs in 49.87 seconds on Sunday at Gulfstream Park, just her second work since finishing far back in the Grade 1 April Blossom on April 18 at Oaklawn Park.
$350K Rainbow 6 jackpot
A dozen fillies and mares have been entered for Wednesday’s $47,000 first-level allowance feature, carded at five furlongs on the turf for Floridabreds. The race also serves as the penultimate leg of the Rainbow 6, which offers a guaranteed jackpot of $350,000.
The headliner has any number of logical contenders, including True Heiress, who defeated open $16,000 claiming company over the same distance May 7 while earning a career-best 83 Beyer Speed Figure. She’ll be joined in the lineup by Foxy Lady, who won a conditioned claimer for the same tag in her most recent start, along with Hera from the barn of red-hot trainer Carlos David.
Among the most intriguing members of the field is Mandamus, who will make her first start since being transferred to trainer Saffie Joseph Jr.’s barn earlier this spring, and her first on grass. She’ll be ridden by Edgard Zayas, the meet’s leading jockey, fresh off a four-win day on Sunday.