By Jim Freer
Conditions are fast and firm at both Florida thoroughbred tracks for Friday afternoon’s race cards.
Tampa Bay Downs has nine races with first post at 12:25 p.m.
Gulfstream Park has ten races with first post at 12:35 p.m.
The Weather Channel forecast is for a zero percent chance of rain, both in Oldsmar where Tampa Bay Downs is located and in Hallandale Beach where Gulfstream is located.
We will have coverage of both tracks on our blog.
*At Tampa Bay the featured eighth is a 1 1/16 mile allowance/optional claimer for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up.
Scheduled post is 3:48 p.m. The purse is $23,500 and the optional tag is $32,000. We will have a preview on our blog.
*At Gulfstream the featured ninth race is an allowance/optional claimer at six furlongs on dirt for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up. The purse is $45,000 and the optional claiming price is $62,500. Scheduled post is 4:32 p.m.
Clipthecouponannie, unbeaten in three starts and trained by Todd Pletcher, is the likely favorite in the six-horse field. John Velazquez has the mount.
It will be her first start since last Feb. 20 when she won the six-furlong Franklin Square Stakes on the inner track at Aqueduct. Clipthecouponannie, a 3-year-old, is a homebred of Repole Stable. She is a New York-bred daughter of Uncle Mo, who raced for Repole.
In her three races she has shown the early speed associated with Uncle Mo (the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner) and many of his progeny such as this year’s Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist.
Clipthecouponannie is in post five and probably will have two challengers for the lead. They are Sweetwater (Marty Wolfson-Javier Castellano) in post four and Diamond Earring (Kathy Ritvo-Matt Rispoli) in post six.
Miss Away (Yendri Pena-Marcos Meneses), Tripocha (Gustavo Delgado-Tyler Gaffalione) and the stakes-placed Banree (Wesley Ward-Tyler Gaffalione) have all won dirt sprints coming from off the pace.
Miss Away is stepping up in class. But she has a three-race win streak in solid times—two at Gulfstream Park West (Calder) and one at Gulfstream.
