The good news is that I continued my winning ways by winning BOTH the first and the second of the day. In the opener, a one-turn mile allowance race, my top selection was Sisterly Love. She had debuted at Calder with an impressive / big Beyer win and she just looked much the best on the stretchout with anything near what she showed in her debut. She rated off the pace and drew off like a good thing.
In the second
race I put my money on Blazing Whip in a juvenile maiden claimer at the
same one-turn mile. It appeared to me that her connections were
"all-in" to win as she was shipping from Laurel, second off a layoff,
going a two-turn turf route to a one-turn dirt mile AND dropping out of
Maiden Special company. In a trip much like Sisterly Love's as Blazing
Whip sat just off the pace and then opened up through the lane to win.
I missed in the 4th when Playing A Joke failed to make up any ground in the stretch as the 9/5 favorite. I thought I had a winner in each of my next two races. In the sixth I had Turbo Cannon who was rated right behind a 45-1 longshot, but then he couldn't get by in the stretch and the winner paid almost $100 for a $2 bet! Then in the 7th I had Three Hearts in a turf race. She sat just off the pace and moved easily to the lead in the lane. She was in front by open lengths and looked home free until the final fifty yards when a 16/1 shot blew by on the wire.....sigh.
I tripled the bet on Little Drama in the featured Sunshine Stakes after he'd run big in back-to-back graded stakes, including a second in the last. Today against state-bred company he looked much the best. Right to the front into the far turn, and then flattened out to be fourth. And finally, I wasn't a huge fan of Southern Heights in the 9th, but he was a maiden first-time starter for Todd Pletcher with Javier Castellano on board - those guys won at a 40% clip last year, and at 4/1 it was too good to pass up. He made a threatening move down the backside but was no better than 4th.
The first full week of racing kicks off on Wednesday, as Gulfstream goes with a full five week schedule from the get-go, unlike last year's December schedule of four days a week until January. The feature race next Saturday is the first graded stakes of the meet, the Grade 3 Sugar Swirl which should include two runners at least from the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint.
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