Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Standoff needs step forward in competitive turf allowance
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Nearly half of the 995 winners Kelly Breen has run in 30-plus years of training have come at Monmouth Park and the Meadowlands in his home state of New Jersey. If you’re keeping score at home, those precise numbers are 442 and 48 for a total of 490.
Monmouth and the Meadowlands are where, more often than not, the second- and thirdstringers of major New York outfits come to try and earn their keep, and that dynamic can be a field-leveler for someone like Breen. But during the winter, when Breen operates out of the Palm Meadows training center while racing mostly at Gulfstream Park, the bigtime stables frequently showcase some of their better stock, and that can make for some difficult matchups for barns of a lower profile.
“It’s tough down here,” Breen said.
Case in point: Breen will saddle a 4-year-old filly named Standoff in what is clearly the highlight of a 10-race Sunday card at Gulfstream, a $72,000, first-level allowance scheduled for 7 1/2 furlongs on the turf. It’s the ninth of 10 races on a program that starts at 12:10 p.m. Eastern.
Standoff, with Paco Lopez riding, will break from post 3 in an oversubscribed field of fillies and mares. The purse listed here does not include $14,000 in Florida-bred bonuses for which only two of the 14 entries are eligible, those being Avow and Mona Stella.
Standoff delivered at once for Breen and the eFive Racing of Bob Edwards and family when debuting at Monmouth in September with a 3 1/2-length maiden triumph, after which Breen tried to figure where to run her next.
“She needs to develop a little bit more, and it’s hard to get them developed when you’re running against horses that have run multiple times or have already won statebred races and such,” he said. “There aren’t any easy spots, even when you go over to run at Tampa” Bay Downs.
The only attempt at this condition for Standoff came last month on the Tampa turf, where she was a so-so fourth as a 2-1 favorite. This time, she’ll face two fillies from the Todd Pletcher stable, Avow (post 4, Edgard Zayas) and Diamond Hands (post 10, Irad Ortiz Jr.), as well as Distinctlypossible (post 1, Joel Rosario), a Grade 1-placed filly making her grass debut for Chad Brown.
Having earned Beyer Speed Figures of 69 and 65 in her first two races, Standoff will need to step up her game to prove competitive with them, particularly Diamond Hands, whose last-out 87 Beyer in late September likely will make her the favorite, especially with the ever-popular Ortiz up.
The Sunday feature will be directly preceded by another $72,000, first-level allowance for fillies and mares, albeit at six furlongs on the main track. Broadway Force, a sharp last-out maiden winner for Jimmy Jerkens, figures as a top contender in a field of seven that includes three Floridabreds – Dreamster, Rosie’s Halo, and the comebacking La Chica Lateral – eligible for shares of an additional $14,000 in bonuses.
Both Sunday allowances are part of the 20-cent Rainbow 6 (races 5-10), which had a carryover of $768,472 into Friday action. Gulfstream is planning a forceout of the Rainbow 6 next Sunday (March 5).
Sunshine and a high of 85 are in the Sunday forecast.
Big field for Fountain of Youth
Forte, the reigning divisional champion, will make his eagerly awaited 3-year-old debut here next Saturday (March 4) in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, one of nine stakes (eight graded) on one of the premier dates of the 2022-23 Championship meet. Forte, trained by Todd Pletcher, was scheduled to have his final pre-race breeze this weekend at Palm Beach Downs.
Blazing Sevens, winner of the Grade 1 Champagne last fall for Chad Brown, and Rocket Can, a last-out winner of the Holy Bull for Bill Mott, were among at least 10 challengers expected when entries were to be released Saturday. The others are Cyclone Mischief, Dangerous Ride, General Jim, Great Navigator, Il Miracolo, Legacy Isle, Mage, and Shadow Dragon.
Mage, an impressive debut winner here earlier this winter, tuned up for the Fountain of Youth by working five furlongs in 1:00.78 on Friday in company and best of a team with O Captain. Javier Castellano was aboard Mage, who galloped out six furlongs in 1:13.75 before easing up seveneighths in 1:27.36. The 4-yearold O Captain finished third at odds of 87-1, with Castellano in the irons, in the 2022 edition of the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth. Both horses are trained by Gustavo Delgado.
The 1 1/16-mile Fountain of Youth is a 100-point qualifier (50-20-15-10-5) toward the Kentucky Derby on May 6. It comes four weeks before the Florida Derby on April 1, a 200-point qualifier (100-40-3020-10).
Pletcher also said he would enter Atomically “and maybe another filly” in one of the main supporting features, the Grade 2 Davona Dale, but was unlikely to enter Charge It in the Gulfstream Park Mile, a Grade 2 race for which the 4-year-old colt would have been a big favorite.
◗ Ken Ramsey won’t be on hand for the big Saturday card because he’ll be with family in Barbados, trying to win the Barbados Gold Cup for the fourth time. Ramsey will be represented by Tallahatchiebridge and American Diamond, both trained by Barbadian native Saffie Joseph Jr. Ramsey won the Gold Cup in 2014, 2015, and 2018.