BY GULFSTREAM PARK PRESS OFFICE
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL—Siena Farm’s homebred filly Juliet’s Rose, an eye-catching debut winner over older horses last month, returns to face winners for the first time in Friday’s co-featured ninth race at Gulfstream Park.
The 3-year-old daughter of Bolt d’Oro, based at Gulfstream with trainer Ralph Nicks, raced just off the lead for a half-mile before taking over at the top of the stretch and pulling clear to win by four-and-three-quarters lengths in a six-and-a-half-furlong maiden special weight Nov. 5.
Juliet’s Rose cuts back to six furlongs for Friday’s entry-level, $25,000 optional claiming for 3-year-olds and older, where she is the 8-5 program favorite from post five in a field of eight.
Jockey Leonel Reyes gets the return call.
Breaking just to her inside is the Rohan Crichton-owned and trained Florida-bred Dem a Wonder, a 5-year-old mare by Hello Broadway that has won 11 of 35 career starts and nearly $300,000 in purses, including a 10-for-31 mark at Gulfstream.
Also bred by Crichton, Dem A Wonder is out of Aiden’s Lil Devil, by Richter Scale and has earned $298,100.
Irad Ortiz Jr., up for a win and a third in two tries last winter, has the assignment.
Juvenile fillies will be in the spotlight in the second race, a $75,000 optional claiming scheduled for five furlongs on the turf. Castleton Lyons’ homebred El Terreno, trained by Christophe Clement, was a front-running 11-length winner of her unveiling Oct. 25 over the all-weather course at Presque Isle Downs in her lone start.
Sent off at 8-1 that day, the daughter of the late sprint champion Speightstown is 7-5 on the morning line.
Stefania Farms’ Florida-bred Fairhopecurly won her first two starts this summer and fall in the Midwest then, after running fifth in the $243,000 Indian Summer on the turf at Keeneland, was claimed by trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. for $75,000 out of a five-and-a-half-furlong optional claiming allowance over Gulfstream’s synthetic course Nov. 24.
The seventh race is a first condition, $75,000 optional claiming allowance for 2-year-old fillies scheduled for one mile on the grass, where Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott will send out Gainesway Stable’s San Pantaleo, who graduated by two-and-a-half lengths in gate-to-wire fashion going six furlongs Nov. 5 on the Aqueduct turf. Tracy Farmer’s Time to Dazzle won her debut at the same distance and surface Sept. 17 at Woodbine and drops after finishing ninth in the Grade 2 Jessamine at a mile-and-a-sixteenth on the turf on Oct. 6 at Keeneland. Florida-breds Jayana, a recent maiden winner for trainer Joseph Catanese III; and Whispering Sea, who comes into Friday after finishing fourth in a first level, $62,500 optional claiming on the grass at Laurel Park for Michael Trombetta, are also entered.
