Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Summit of Speed tops spring-summer meet
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The 2020-21 Championship meet may be in the rearview mirror but live racing on the South Florida circuit will not skip a beat at Gulfstream Park, with the spring-summer session kicking off with an eight race program on Thursday.
Live racing will be conducted on a Thursday-throughSunday basis, with post time at 1 p.m. daily. The springsummer session, which continues through Sept. 30, will be highlighted by the traditional Summit of Speed program on July 3, featuring the Grade 2, $350,000 Princess Rooney for fillies and mares and the Grade 3, $200,000 Smile Sprint for 3-year-olds and up. The seven-furlong Princess Rooney is again a designated Win and You’re In race for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. The spring-summer stakes program offers 34 races worth a total of $3.5 million.
A pair of statebred allowance races valued at $47,000 apiece highlights the opening-day fare.
The first of the two co-features, race 2, is for 3-yearolds going a mile on the main track, and drew a field of just five. The race is topped by Seazan, who finished third in the 1 1/16-mile In Reality here last fall. Trained by Ralph Nicks, Seazan returns to the main track off an eighth-place finish in his turf debut five weeks earlier, which followed a bang-up second against open high-priced starter-allowance company over the main track on Jan. 3
Ampersand, who finished a distant fourth in the Grade 1 Hopeful last summer at Saratoga, could be sitting on a muchimproved effort stretching to a mile for the first time off a couple of troubled trips to open the season. He is expected to be part of the early pace if he breaks cleanly from his inside post under the recently arrived rider Jose Morelos.
Hercules and Chipshape both bring two-race win streaks against open company into the race. Hercules rallied from just off the pace to a 1 1/2-length starter-allowance victory on March 18, for which he received a career-best 72 Beyer, easily the top last-out figure in the field.
Sososubtle returns to a more suitable spot after prompting the pace and finishing far back in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth. That ambitious undertaking followed an impressive 4 1/4-length statebred maiden win five weeks earlier.
A field of seven 4-year-olds and up will go 5 1/2 furlongs under similar allowance conditions in the afternoon’s seventh race, with the speedy Northern likely to be favored off a wire-to-wire 1 3/4-length victory over $6,250 claimers, for which he earned an 83 Beyer Figure.
Other key contenders include Man of Vision, Star Juancho, and Gangly, who had his best chances compromised when hopping at the start as the 7-5 favorite under similar conditions on Feb. 18.
Gonzalez carries momentum
Among the new jockeys looking to make a name for themselves during the meet is Edwin Gonzalez, who made a pretty good first local impression by recording a hat trick here Sunday on the final card of the Championship session. Gonzalez, who has dominated the jockey standings over the past several years at Penn National, registered his 1,000th U.S. victory on March 10 at Penn National. Gonzalez finished second aboard Frosted Grace for trainer Kathy Ritvo in Saturday’s Sir Shackleton.
Chantal Sutherland is another new addition to the local riding colony to start the meet. Edgard Zayas will be favored to defend his springsummer meet title after coming off his best ever Championship session, finishing fifth in the standings with 74 wins.
◗ Tyler Gaffalione closed out the Championship meet in style, posting four victories on Sunday’s finale. Those wins gave him 95 for the session, good for third place in the standings, just three behind runner-up Paco Lopez. Gaffalione will resume riding when Keeneland opens on Friday.
◗ As expected, Todd Pletcher dominated the trainer standings during the Championship meet, notching a record 17th title, with 58 wins. Irad Ortiz Jr. captured his third consecutive Championship meet riding crown while setting a record of 140 victories. Paradise Farms and David Staudacher took down leading owner honors with 13 tallies.