A first: Weekend stakes races moved to Presidents Day
Stakes have been part of Gulfstream Park’s Saturday menu for as long as there has been a Gulfstream. Not this weekend.
The Royal Delta, run on the Saturday of Presidents Day weekend last season, has been shifted to the Monday holiday.
In its place, Gulfstream is offering an array of 12 starter allowances on Saturday, races where eligibility is determined by the levels at which horses have won. Every category has an opportunity with sprints, twoturn events and turf races for 3-year-olds and older horses of both genders.
Although they aren’t stakes races, Gulfstream is giving the races names as if they are, and there are stakes horses sprinkled throughout the entries. These include the winners and horses who finished in the money in several Claiming Crown races, which Saturday’s card resembles.
But the feature of the weekend is the $200,000 Grade 3 Royal Delta for fillies and mares. A year ago, the Royal Delta, which has been shortened from a twoturn mile-and-a-sixteenth to a one-turn flat mile, was run on Saturday and the starter allowance festival was on Presidents Day.
Multiple stakes winner Curlin’s Approval, the defending champion, will try to get back to the winner’s circle after a couple of seconds in the graded Rampart and Hurricane Bertie earlier this season. She’ll have to work hard for her money.
Lewis Bay, who outran her from gate to wire in the Rampart, is back. Trained by back-to-back Eclipse winner Chad Brown, Lewis Bay has always been highly regarded but has had problems staying healthy. Now 5, the Royal Delta is only her 12th start.
Her Rampart triumph was her fourth graded stakes scores and she’s been out of the money only once, a fourth place finish in the 2016 Grade 1 Test Stakes at Saratoga.
Unbridled Mo is another with strong credentials but health issues. A winner of six of eight starts, including four stakes, she’s coming back off a 10-month layoff. But Todd Pletcher excels at getting horses to fire off the bench. Unbridled Mo races for the Red Oak Stable of Hialeah owner John Brunetti.
Verve’s Tale, a Grade 3 winner, is coming back off a shorter layoff. She hasn’t been out since running third in the Go For Wand at Aqueduct in December.
Surprise Wedding, who won a minor main track stakes in Tampa,. returns to the dirt after a subsequent fourth in the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf. Tapa Tapa Tapa ships in from Tampa off a win and second this season.
Giulia adds an international flavor to the Royal Delta as a Grade 1 winner in Uruguay.
First post Saturday is noon.