BY GULFSTREAM PARK PRESS OFFICE (Edited)
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Wallace Moore Jr.’s 5-year-old Florida-bred mare Ashima, a 12-time winner that has gone unraced since late April, is set to launch her comeback over a course and a distance she loves in Saturday’s $60,000 Time Passage overnight handicap at Gulfstream Park.
The one-mile-and-70-yard Time Passage for fillies and mares, 3-years-old and older, is the first of two overnight handicaps over the all-weather Tapeta course, followed by the $60,000 Carotari for 3-year-olds and older sprinting five-and-a-half furlongs.
Ashima is a daughter of the late Grade 1-winning sprinter The Big Beast, who passed away in June at age 15. Ashima ran third or better in 11 consecutive starts, seven of them wins, after being claimed for $8,000 by trainer Sal Santoro in November 2024 including a debut victory in the 2025 Sunshine Filly & Mare Turf for her new connections.
Santoro decided the time was right for a break after Ashima finished off the board in back-to-back starts, both on the grass, most recently fourth by two lengths in the $100,000 FHBPA Filly & Mare Turf April 25 behind Florida-bred Souper Zonda, a four-time stakes winner with a popular front-running triumph in the October 10 Daring Kathy overnight handicap at Gulfstream.
“You have to give kudos to the owner. I told him she’s got to have a break, she’s not a machine, and he said fine,” Santoro said. “He’s been patient and understanding, the whole nine yards. I give him a ton of credit. A lot of owners wouldn’t be happy about having to pay bills with no chance of anything coming in because the horse isn’t running. He was great with it. He’s excited as hell [to have her running], that’s for sure.”
Ashima has been training steadily since returning to Santoro’s barn in early August, breezing twice last month at Gulfstream including a bullet five furlongs in :59.69 October 24 over the Tapeta. She has a record of nine wins with a second and third in 13 lifetime races on the synthetic, and is five-for-seven with one second and one third at the mile and 70-yard distance with four more wins going a mile-and-a-sixteenth.
“She was just off to give her some R and R and let her be a horse. We took our time with her and she’s been moving along pretty good. She’s fresh, she’s feeling good,” Santoro said. “It’s time, and we figured this is as good a spot as any to get her going. We were trying to find a starter and we entered a couple, but they just didn’t go. It’s time to run, so we discussed it and the owner said, ‘Hell, yeah, put her in.’
“One of the vets came by the other morning and checked her out, jogged her up and down the shedrow, went over her with a fine-toothed comb and said, ‘Good luck on Saturday. She looks good,’” he added. “We’re just waiting. We’re looking forward to it.”
Diego Herrera gets the riding assignment for the first time on Ashima, who drew post six in a field of eight, will carry 121 pounds and is rated as the co-fourth choice on the morning line at 6-1 for her first start in 197 days.
“I’m not putting on a clean shirt for a win picture, first race back, but I think she’s going to run good. She’s on a surface she likes and hopefully she’ll get something out of the race and like everybody else come back safe and sound,” Santoro said. “We’re all excited. That’s about all I can say.”
Ashima is out of Nurse John, by Colonel John and was bred in Florida by Delbert Lewis of Carson, California in the name of his Cat Racing Stable.
The narrow 5-2 program favorite is Palm Beach Racing V homebred Miss Mary Nell.
The 4-year-old Florida-bred Girvin filly was a length-and-a-quarter ahead of Ashima when third in the FHBPA Filly & Mare Turf, is six-for-13 lifetime on the synthetic and won half of her 12 tries at the distance, latest a a length-and-three-quarters victory in the $89,000 Ginger Punch taken off the turf on September 12. In her last start, Miss Mary Nell ran third by two lengths in the Daring Kathy.
Miss Mary Nell is out of Tempest’s Flash, by It’s No Joke and will be ridden by Jonathan Ocasio from post eight. She is the 5-2 morning line favorite.
Glassman Racing’s Candy Quest is the 124-pound topweight and, like Ashima, will be entering the Time Passage off a lengthy layoff. The 4-year-old daughter of Connect hasn’t been out since finishing ninth in the mile-and-a-sixteenth Sand Springs on the Gulfstream turf on March 28, a span of 225 days. Winner of last summer’s Ontario Colleen (G3) on the grass at Woodbine, Candy Quest will be making her Tapeta debut though she has two siblings with past success on the synthetic including multiple Grade 3 winner Frosted Over.
Candy Quest will break from post five with Sonny Leon in the irons and is 7-2 in the program.
Among the field is Gary Barber’s Minty, a stablemate of Candy Quest that was most recently eighth, beaten two-and-a-half lengths, in the six-furlong Sensible Lady September 12 on the Laurel Park turf. She raced twice over the Tapeta during the 2025-2026 Championship Meet, both at a mile-and-70-yards, including a front-running optional claiming victory last November.
Rated with 120 pounds, Minty is 10-1 on the morning line and will depart post one with Angel Cruz aboard.
R.A.F. Productions’ Fantasy Performer won the one-mile Frolic’s Revenge overnight handicap August 16 on the Gulfstream turf over next-out winners Little Jamie and Miss Mary Nell, the latter avenging that loss by three-quarters of a length when Fantasy Performer ran second as the favorite. The 5-year-old mare finished behind Miss Mary Nell again when sixth in the Daring Kathy.
Fantasy Performer will tote 122 pounds including jockey Joe Bravo from starting position four. They are 3-1 on the morning line.
Florida-bred Lets Go Koko (Post 2, Edwin Gonzalez, 6-1, 120), upset winner of the 2025 Powder Break on the Gulfstream turf, Simply Striking (Post 3, Marcos Meneses, 20-1, 117) and Oshala (Post 7, Heriberto Figueroa, 8-1, 119) complete the field.
Bred in Florida by Baoma Corp. and trained by Eddie Plesa Jr. for his wife, Laurie, and Karl Glassman, Time Passage made 18 of her 21 lifetime starts at Gulfstream Park. She was first or second 10 times with six wins including four in a row to end her 2023 campaign, a streak that included the Soaring Softly overnight handicap, Miss Gracie and Cellars Shiraz stakes. She was retired in 2024 with $374,302 in purse earnings.
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