HorseracingFLA Staff Report
Gulfstream Park will have eleven races today with a first post of 12:35 p.m.
Gulfstream is usually dark on Mondays. It has a special race card today, the Martin Luther King Day holiday
In another change this week, Gulfstream will not have racing on Wednesday. Later this week, it will have racing on Thursday through Sunday.
Tampa Bay Downs’ next race day will be Wednesday when it will have ten races with first post of 12:25 p.m.
On Saturday, Mexikoma and X Y Jet were the biggest stars in the annual Sunshine Millions at Gulfstream.
Mexikoma caught Mr. Jordan about 100 yards from the wire and went on to win over that rival by 1 ½ lengths
in the $250,000 Classic at 1 1/8 miles on dirt.
X Y Jet shot out to the lead and was never headed as he beat Wildcat Red by 4 ¼ lengths in the $150,000 Sprint at six furlongs on dirt. The winning time was an exceptional 1:08.58.
The Classic and the Sprint were among the six Sunshine Millions stakes races—all restricted to Florida breds for 4-year-olds and up.
Those races were run one day after Gulfstream, due to rains prior and during the race card, moved all five races scheduled for turf to the dirt track that was listed as sloppy.
No rain fell on Friday night and Saturday morning. That allowed drying out for Saturday, which was a rain free afternoon.
The main track started out listed as good, but was upgraded to fast prior to the start of stakes races, The turf course was listed as good although it was (expectedly) wet in spots.
Times were relatively fast on dirt, but on turf they were understandably slow for stakes races.
Gulfstream continued the strong handle and field size numbers that it has shown for the current championship meet as well as for the 2014-2015 championship meet.
On Saturday for 12 races there were 116 starters and all-sources handle was $13,403,368.
On last year’s Sunshine Millions Day, Saturday Jan. 17, there were eleven races with 119 starters. All-sources handle was $12,302,393.
Gulfstream does not regularly report the breakdowns among live and off-site handle.
We will have follow-up reports this week on several of the Sunshine Millions races.
Here are details of the six races.
*Classic ($250,000) – 1 1/8 miles on dirt
Mexikoma won in 1:48.19. John Velazquez rode for trainer Michael Dilger.
Joe Bravo rode Mr. Jordan for trainer Eddie Plesa Jr.
*Sprint ($150,000) – seven furlongs on dirt,
X Y Jet’s win came four weeks after he won the six-furlong Mr. Prospector (Grade 3) at Gulfstream on Dec. 19 in 1:08.56. Big Drama set the track record of 1:08.12 in 2011.
Emisael Jaramillo rode X Y Jet in the Mr. Prospector and in the Sunshine Millions Sprint.
Jorge Navarro trains X Y Jet for owner Gelfenstein Farm.
*Distaff ($200,000) – seven furlongs on dirt, fillies and mares
Mom’z Laugh and You Bought Her raced head-to-head over the final 200 yards, with Mom’s Laugh winning by a nose. Legal Laura finished third,
Mom’z Laugh, a 4-year-old, won in 1:22.96. Javier Castellano rode for trainer Marcus Vitali.
*Turf ($150,000) – 1 1/16 miles
Manchurian High won the race for the second straight year with Reporting Star finishing second for the second straight year.
Luis Saez rode Manchurian High, who won in 1:44.89,
Manchurian High was the 7-1 third betting choice and Reporting Star was the second choice at 4-1 in the 11-horse field. Fundamental, the even money favorite, finished third
Lilli Kurtinecz is the trainer and owner of Manchurian High. * *F*Fi*Filly and Mare Turf ($150,000) – 1 1/16 miles
Lori’s Store beat her stablemate E.B. Ryder by a half-length.
The two horses raced as separate betting interests. Both are trained by Marty Wolfson and owned by Miller Racing.
Pink Poppy, owned by Arindel Farm, finished third by a half-length. Pink Poppy won the race in 2015.
Lori’s Store was the even-money favorite in the six-horse field. She was ridden by Velazquez and won in 1:45.83.
*Turf Sprint ($150,000) – 5 furlongs
Amelia’s Wild Ride defeated Summation Time by a half length.
Amlia’s Wild Ride won in 58,51. Jose Lezcano rode her for trainer Chloe Bradley.
