Low on star power, Florida Sire Stakes ends

HALLANDALE BEACH — The Florida Sire Stakes has produced some outstanding horses, including Hall of Famer and Horse of the Year Holy Bull and Eclipse champions Smile, Big Drama and Awesome Feather.

Young horses can improve rapidly, but this year’s series — which concludes Saturday at Gulfstream Park with the In Reality for males and My Dear Girl for fillies — seems unlikely to follow in those exalted hoof prints.

This year’s crop of 2-year-olds lacks a standout of either gender. Males are experiencing a particularly down season. This is underlined by the placement of the In Reality, normally the showpiece of the Sire Stakes program, as the second of 14 races on a card with an early first post at noon. (The In Reality and My Dear Girl are each a mile and a sixteenth for $400,000.)

Lack of star power and a six-horse field are contributing factors for the early scheduling of a major event. Soutache, winner of the second stage Affirmed, seems to tower over the field. However, this is as much a product of the modest credentials of his rivals as his talent. Yeehaw and Marnatha are still winless; His Name Is Sue and Tip Sheet, have only low-level maiden claiming victories, and Highborn was fourth, beaten 16 lengths, by Soutache in the Affirmed.

There also are questions surrounding Soutache. He has never raced beyond seven furlongs. His trainer, Ralph Nicks, expressed concerns this week about the extended distance and that the Affirmed might have taken a lot out of his colt. Nicks, who also trained the winner of the first stage Dr. Fager, Phantom Ro, who is sidelined with an injury, is bidding to become the eighth trainer to win all three legs of the Sire Stakes, and only the second to do it with different horses.

The My Dear Girl, the 13th race, drew a field of 10 with stronger credentialed contenders. Starship Bonita, owned by “Marlins Man” Laurence Leavy, is the horse to beat off her triumph in the seven-furlong Susan’s Girl, the only victory and longest distance of her three-race career.

She barely held off Dessert Honeys, whose late charge missed by only a head. Given their respective styles, Dessert Honeys figures to benefit more than Starship Bonita from the extra 330 yards.

Go Astray led all the way in the six-furlong opening round Desert Vixen and had a clear lead in the stretch of the Susan’s Girl before tiring, so a mile and a sixteenth could be a bridge too far for her. Awesome Mass, favored in both rounds of the Sire Stakes, also could have distance limitations. Her only win in five starts was at five furlongs. However, she is trained by Stanley Gold, whose 18 wins in the series, which was called the Stallion Stakes when it was run at Calder, is a record.

Unstablenthemornin returns from an unsuccessful stakes attempt at Del Mar and tries dirt for the first time. The same is true of Louisiana Downs shipper Taylor’s Princess, who tired in a one-mile turf stakes last time out. These two are the only ones with two-turn experience, which could be a factor.

Gulfstream closes its summer season Sunday. Racing shifts to Calder for the two-month Gulfstream West meeting on Wednesday. Gulfstream’s premier winter meeting opens Dec. 2.