Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Big, solid fields for turf stakes
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Anyone who likes to watch and wager on full, evenly matched, graded stakes-caliber fields on turf – and who doesn’t? – certainly will get a full dose of that Saturday at Gulfstream Park, where the $100,000 H. Allen Jerkens Stakes will be supported by four other grass stakes with field sizes ranging from 12 to 14 horses.
Topping the outstanding undercard will be the $75,000 Via Borghese, for fillies and mares at 1 3/16 miles, which lured a dozen entries, including the Chad Brown-trained pair of Galileo’s Song and Texting, the Grade 1-placed Martini Glass, the Grade 1-tested Beauly, and the multiple stakes-winning Canadian invader Involuntary.
Galileo’s Song never seems to run a poor race but has been frustrated this year, having finished second in all three of her starts in 2017, most recently in the Grade 3 Long Island Handicap at Aqueduct. She’ll seek her first victory since winning her entry-level allowance condition at Belmont during the summer of 2016.
Texting also hasn’t visited the winner’s circle in more than a year, but rarely turns in a poor effort. She finished third, a length behind Galileo’s Song, in the Long Island and appears to be at the top of her game.
Martini Glass has been an amazing story for trainer Keith Nations, who haltered the 4-year-old filly for a bargain $16,000 out of a winning debut at Tampa Bay Downs in 2016. She has earned almost $500,000 since then and ran second this year in a pair Grade 1 dirt races, the Delaware Handicap and the Spinster at Keeneland.
“She’s probably better on dirt, but there just doesn’t seem to be many dirt races going two turns right now for fillies and mares,” said Nations. “She’ll have to be at her best to tackle this group. It looks like five or six horses can win this race.”
Beauly and Involuntary get some class relief. Beauly enters off a fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Flower Bowl at Belmont Park, and Involuntary comes off a third-place effort after setting the pace through midstretch in the Grade 3 Maple Leaf at Woodbine.
◗ The $75,000 Tropical Park Derby brings together a full gate of 14 looking for one final race restricted to 3-year-olds. Once again, Brown has a leading contender with the steadily improving Funtastic, who will look to avenge a recent neck setback to Small Bear in the Gio Ponti Stakes at Aqueduct.
The lineup also includes Grade 3 winner Tiz a Slam; the graded-stakes-placed trio of Mr Cub, Gorgeous Kitten, and Profiteer; and the promising Dance Strike, who has won two of his three starts and is making his stakes debut.
◗ The $75,000 Tropical Park Oaks for 3-year-old fillies proved so popular that it had to be split into two divisions of 13 horses each.
The first division will be led by the multiple graded stakes winner Miss Sky Warrior, who will try grass for the first time and figures to be the one to catch after breaking from the rail for trainer Kelly Breen.
“I’m trying to get her back to her winning ways,” Breen said. “I’ve been told in the past by her owner that there’s a lot of turf in the pedigree. She worked out on the turf at Palm Meadows and really flew over it. Not to say that she doesn’t like dirt, but we’re going to try this as another opportunity and keep all our options open.”
Miss Sky Warrior shares the high weight of 121 pounds under the allowance conditions of the race with Rose Tree and Storm the Hill, who makes her first start since joining trainer Eddie Kenneally’s stable at Palm Meadows following a third-place finish in the Grade 3 Autumn Miss at Santa Anita on Oct. 29.
The second division attracted the stakes winners Ghostly Presence, Super Marina, I’m Betty G, My Sistersledge, Lirica, and Sister Nation, along with the Grade 3-placed Taperge and the steadily improving Speighgal.