BY BROCK SHERIDAN
Champion Equine’s multiple stakes-winning Florida-bred Willow Case has been tabbed as the even-money favorite for Saturday’s eighth race at Gulfstream Park, a $75,000 optional claiming for seven 2-year-old fillies going six furlongs.
An earner of $130,850 for trainer J. David Braddy, Willow Case overcame several challenges in her early years according to Kenneth H. Davis, who bred the daughter of Pleasant Acres Stallions’ Neolithic with his late wife Sherry R. Mansfield. The bay filly is out of Pillow Case, by Drosselmeyer.
Davis said Willow Case injured her right eye in her first month and still has a spot in the eye from the mishap. She later came up lame in her left hind foot in her yearling year. Davis had several veterinarians examine the foot but was never completely satisfied with a diagnosis or solution, eventually allowing Willow Case to heal on her own.
“I’m not sure exactly what it was,” Davis said of the foot injury. “I think it was some kind of sliver [of wood] or piece of gravel that got in her foot but that it had to come out. One vet said it would be a risky surgery, because it was so close to a tendon. But they never said she would never race, so I just let her heal.
“Manny Ortega liked her and has always helped me out. He eventually took her and broke her and never had a problem with her.”
Willow Case rides a three-race win streak into Saturday’s contest, including two stakes victories in her last two races.
After breaking her maiden in her second start against special weight fillies going four-and-a-half furlongs at Gulfstream on May 1, Willow Case was an 27-1 upset winner of the $75,000 Sharp Susan going six furlongs in the slop at Gulfstream on Aug. 9. With Leonel Reyes aboard for the first time, Willow Case stalked the leaders into the turn, then went three-wide to take over in the stretch and win convincingly by three-and-a-quarter lengths.
Braddy then stretched her out to a mile for the $75,000 Hallandale Beach at Gulfstream on Sept. 26. Reyes again kept her just off the leaders in the early going, chased the top two until the final sixteenth before surging to the front to win by three-quarters of a length.
Leonel Reyes retains the mount on Willow Case and they will break from post seven.
Florida-bred Evolution, a homebred for Arindel is the 7-2 second choice for trainer Carlos David.
After breaking her maiden at Gulfstream in May, Evolution traveled to Saratoga for the $150,000 Schuylerville in July, finishing sixth. She was then seventh in the Sharp Susan and fourth last out on Sept. 6 in the $100,000 FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes Desert Vixen at Gulfstream.
Evolution is by Brethren out of Sweet Khaleesi, by Maimonides and has earned $72,707 from one win and a second in five starts.
Edgard Zayas rides Evolution from post two.
Rounding out the field are Nour with jockey Luca Panici, Florida-bred Dakota’s Lil Auror will be ridden by Jose Morelos, Make Your Wish will have Jesus Rios up, Samy Camacho guides Florida-bred Fly Life and Florida-bred Triple Threat has Dalila A. Rivera taking the riding assignment.
Return to the October 24 issue of Wire to Wire
