It’s not often that ‘Going Gulfstream’ features a maiden special weight juvenile sprint replete with first-time starters but is today for two reasons; it’s the classiest gathering on the card and is helping to usher in the new three-surface era at the Hallandale track.
The race is wide open for many reasons; horses who made promising debuts or first-timers with a pedigree, connections, or an eye-catching work-tab. How this all will be affected by the surface is anyone’s guess at in the nescient stages.
One can win turf sprints with pedigree, sheer speed, or a combination of both. It’s much the same with All Weather surfaces like Tapeta. But like Grade 1s, not all AW strips are created equal, even if made with the same materials. If we’re to hazard a guess, we’ll erring on the side of pedigree and experience.
Successful synthetic sires that we know of are represented in today’s race, albeit mostly on the grandsire side. Strategy Queen, coming off a good second start, has two-sided second gen support: Giant’s Causeway and Sky Mesa. The former is also present in Todd FTS Alarm Clock.
The other entrant with second gen blood is Lady Puchi (9-2), representing Harlan’s Holiday, also the sire of Into Mischief, of course, Interestingly, these two fillies own the best races on the page. Check ‘Puchi’s’ AUG 28 debut, Race 8. The same for ‘Queen’s’ SEP 11 effort, Race 3.
Our lean is Lady Puchi to win; She was a good third in debut with the first two finishers coming back to win next out. ‘Strategy’, however, exits a faster race and her figures are forward.
We will spread in the verticals with these two, and consider an experienced and fast turf-to-synth runner, Quentessa (10-1), and two live-looking newcomers from Todd Pletcher and Georgina Baxter, respectively, Alarm Clock (7-2) and R Girl’s Werth It (8-1).
ADDENDA: I have found it useful when looking for synth sires to include Candy Ride, Stormy Atlantic, Speightstown and Tiznow to name a few…
Ed note: There are four AW races scheduled for Thursday
