BY GULFSTREAM PARK PRESS OFFICE (Edited)
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL—An impressive debut winner, Arindel’s homebred Boots will make her highly anticipated second career start in Friday’s $100,000 Sharp Susan Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
A Florida-bred daughter of Arindel’s Brethren, Boots had been scheduled originally to follow up her three-and-a-half-length debut score in the $125,000 Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies at Gulfstream on May 9 with the goal of winning a fees-paid berth in one of six stakes for juveniles during Great Britain’s Royal Ascot meeting in June.
“She got a little sick,” trainer Carlos David said. “I had her in the turf races here, but I had to scratch her because she got ill. But she’s recovered fully and is doing really, really well.”
Boots will be making her first start for David since being transferred from trainer Jorge Delgado shortly after her debut.
Boots pressed the pace before drawing off to a convincing debut victory in a four-and-a-half-furlong dirt dash at Gulfstream April 16 under Samy Camacho. She is rated third at odds of 7-2 on the morning-line for the five-and-a-half furlong stakes for juvenile fillies on dirt that will co-headline Friday’s program with the $70,000 Wildcat Red, a one-turn mile overnight handicap for 3-year-olds and older.
Boots is third foal and first starter out of the unraced Ghostzapper mare Medusa.
She earned $39,000 in her lone start. She breaks from post seven.
Among Boots’ seven rivals Friday will be Florida-bred stablemate Hot Rod Honey.
Like Boots, Troy Johnson, Wendell Yates and Robert Fritts’ Hot Rod Honey is also coming off an impressive debut victory.
“I’m excited about both fillies,” David said.
The daughter of Ocala Stud’s hot first-crop Florida sire Roadster pressed the pace into the stretch before kicking in to win a five-furlong maiden special weight by a length-and-a-half on June 5 at Gulfstream.
“When she came to us, she came ready to breeze, ready to get going,” David said. “She is a small filly. She’s not very big, but she has it in her. I wasn’t surprised when she won. I liked the way she won – off the pace a little bit.”
Bred in Florida by the Estate of Brereton C. Jones, Hot Rod Honey is the first of three foals out of the unraced mare Go Together, by Unified. All are by Roadster including an unnamed yearling filly and a weanling colt.
Rated second at 3-1 on the morning-line, Hot Rod Honey drew the rail post position and will be ridden for the first time by Leonel Reyes.
“It’s not the best post Friday, but there’s nothing we can do about that,” David said.
Deb Morgan and trainer Patrick Biancone’s Elegante Miz, a gutsy debut winner on Tapeta June 6 at Gulfstream, has been installed as the 5-2 morning-line favorite for the Sharp Susan.
The daughter of Golden Pal, who was purchased for $145,000 at the 2026 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Spring Sale, was last of six fillies out of the starting gate in her debut, in which she made a four wide rally on the turn into the homestretch to take the lead in the stretch, where she drifted out but dug in to win by a neck.
“She’s a good filly. She’ll be an even better filly when she doesn’t drift out off the turn,” Biancone said.
Elegante Miz has been working sharply over the dirt track at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, for her main-track debut in the Sharp Susan.
“She’s worked good on the dirt. Good horses are good on anything, you know,’ Biancone said.
Elegante Miz will be equipped with blinkers for the first time Friday.
“The other day she was really green. I don’t like to put blinkers on the first time, but I think she was looking around too much,” Biancone said. “It’s just to get a bit more focus.
Kentucky-based Keith Asmussen has the return mount on Elegante Miz for the Sharp Susan.
Jeffrey Cole’s Candy Cole, a debuting daughter of Twirling Candy, is highly rated at 4-1 on the morning-line for a filly with no race experience.
A $115,000 yearling purchase at last year’s Keeneland September sale, Candy Cole sports a solid worktab at Gulfstream in preparation for her debut.
Yolber Torres has the mount from post five.
Ortega Stables’ Melody Queen (8-1), who graduated with a front-running three-length victory in her third career start; Cloud Nine Lumoni’s Florida-bred Colombina (10-1), a front-running debut winner against state-bred fillies; Soler and Soler Thoroughbred Corp.’s Florida-bred Privateinformation (10-1), who finished second behind Hot Rod Honey after holding a two-length lead in the stretch; and Gabriel Duignan’s Lamdara (20-1), who finished third in her recent debut; round out the field.
Return to the July 2 issue of Wire to Wire
