BY BROCK SHERIDAN
A winner of the Gulfstream Park’s South Beach overnight handicap at odds of 24-1 on synthetic in January, Florida-bred Miss Mary Nell looks to earn winning black type on the track’s turf course Saturday as the 7-2 morning line favorite in the $100,000 Ginger Punch Handicap.
Miss Mary Nell and Fantasy Performer are the co-highweights, each with 123 pound assignments, and will concede between one and eight pounds to their eight rivals in the one-mile grass contest. Among the fillies and mares, 3-years-old and older, are Florida-breds Lets Go Koko and City Minute, who have been assigned 119 pounds and 118 pounds respectively.
A homebred for Palm Beach Racing, Miss Mary Nell looks to avenge a third-place finish to Fantasy Performer in the $70,000 Frolic’s Revenge overnight handicap on August 16. Run at a mile on the Gulfstream Park turf with both carrying 122 pounds, Miss Mary Nell had taken the lead from early leader Do Gooder in the stretch but could not hold off the late running Fantasy Performer, who came from last.
Also just a neck shy of winner Turino when second in the $82,000 Monroe going a mile on the grass at Guflstream in May, Miss Mary Nell had two subsequent starts on synthetic, finishing fourth in five-and-a-half-furlong Little Miss Holly overnight handicap on June 14 and seventh in the $75,000 Powder Break at a mile-and-a-sixteenth on July 11.
A 4-year-old daughter of Girvin, Miss Mary Nell has a career record of six wins, four seconds and four thirds in 24 races, earning $334,544. She is out of Tempest’s Flash, by It’s No Joke.
Leonel Reyes will guide Miss Mary Nell from post nine while Fantasy Performer will be ridden by Miguel Vasquez from starting position six.
City Minute is one of three entered by trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., who also saddles 9-2 second choice Hello Hello Hello and Barakah, a winner of a maiden special weight on synthetic in March in her only start.
Owned by Jeffrey W. Parthemore and Nicolby Racing Stable, City Minute enters off a narrow second to Calathea in a first level, $25,000 optional claiming going a mile-and-a-sixteenth on the Gulfstream green on August 10—a race in which she outran Ginger Punch entrants Defiant Lass and Spicy Princess in third and fourth respectively.
Sixth in the $75,000 Powder Break on synthetic two starts back on July 11, City Minute returns to a distance and surface on which she has done well previously, fininshing first and second in two tries. She won a first level allowance for Florida-bred fillies and mares at Gulfstream on April 16 and was next second to Achieve in a first condition, $25,000 optional claiming on May 16.
City Minute is a 5-year-old daughter of Not This Time out of E Built This City, by City Zip with a lifetime record of two wins, five seconds and five thirds. Bred in Florida by Michael Sucher’s Champion Equine based in Delray Beach, Florida, City Minute has earnings of $149,650.
Micah Husbands has the call on City Minute, who is 5-1 on the morning line and starts from the inside post. Hello Hello Hello will break from post three with Edwin Gonzalez. Barakah has Rasheed Hughes named to ride from post four and they are 20-1 on the morning line.
Lets Go Koko tries to improve on her last start when sixth in Frolic’s Revenge, five-and-three-quarters length behind Fantasy Performer.
The 5-year-old mare was fourth in last year’s Ginger Punch then took a five-month break.
She returned in February to finish off the board in an upper level, $100,000 optional claiming on the Tampa Bay turf then was a good second to Souper Zonda in the $100,000 Pleasant Acres Stallions Distaff Turf versus Florida-breds at Tampa Bay Downs on March 29.
A homebred for trainer Rory Miller’s Flying Finish Farm in Ocala, Florida, Lets Go Koko is a 5-year-old mare by Ocala Stud’s Adios Charlie out of Vino de Pago, by With Distinction. She has nine wins, five seconds and four thirds in 29 career starts with earnings of $309,675.
Miller will give a leg up on Lets Go Koko to Diego Herrera and they are 8-1 in the program. Lets Go Koko has drawn stall two to start.
Other fillies and mares entered are Spicy Princess with J.G. Torrealba, Ghosts Lil Secret will have Wesley Henry in the irons, Crafty Collector and jockey Samy Camacho and Juan Hernandez gets the call on Defiant Lass.
Return to the September 11 issue of Wire to Wire
