BY GULFSTREAM PARK PRESS OFFICE
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL—Averill Racing LLC and Two Eight Racing LLC’s R Harper Rose breezed a half-mile in :47.81 Sunday morning at Gulfstream Park in preparation for a planned start in the $300,000 FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes My Dear Girl Dec. 2.
“She’ll have one more work into that race,” trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said.
The My Dear Girl and co-featured $300,000 In Reality, the final legs of the Florida Sire Stakes series for 2-year-olds sired by accredited Florida stallions, will kick off the $14.875 million stakes scheduled for Gulfstream Park’s 2023-2024 Championship Meet that gets underway Dec. 1.
Florida-bred R Harper Rose is undefeated in three career starts that she has won by a total of 16 lengths. The daughter of Journeyman Stud’s leading Florida sire Khozan won at first asking by six-and-a-half lengths before capturing a five-and-a-half-furlong optional claiming allowance by nearly six lengths. After missing the first leg of the FSS series with a fever, R Harper Rose won the $200,000 Florida Sire Stakes Susan’s Girl by four lengths on Oct. 21.
Bedtime Story: A Tale of Heart and Synthetic
Bruno Schickedanz’s Bedtime Story remained undefeated in six starts on synthetic Sunday at Gulfstream Park, scoring a length-and-three-quarters victory in the eighth race, a five-furlong starter allowance for fillies and mares on the all-weather surface.
The strapping 3-year-old daughter of Bee Jersey has lost only one race during her seven-race career, having finished sixth on turf in the $100,000 Melody of Colors won by Sassy Nature on March 25 at Gulfstream. The Jose D’Angelo-trained filly had tie-back throat surgery following her only loss.
“She’s an amazing filly,” trainer Jose D’Angelo said. “She’s just heart.”
Bedtime Story, who physically towered over her older rivals Sunday, is so big and powerful, she is both delicate and a handful to train, D’Angelo said.
“After tie-back surgery, they recommend a figure-eight bit and a tongue tie,” D’Angelo said. “But you can’t put a tongue tie on her. She doesn’t like it, so she runs with just the figure eight.”
Despite her unblemished record on synthetic, Bedtime Story is likely to run on Gulfstream’s newly renovated turf course during the Championship Meet, D’Angelo said.
Cheminaud Guides Youknownothing to Impressive Debut Win
In Sunday’s fifth race, a mile-and-70-yard maiden special weight race for 2-year-olds on synthetic, jockey Vincent Cheminaud notched his first Gulfstream Park victory, guiding first-time starter Youknownothing to an off-the-pace victory.
Christophe Clement trains the 2-year-old daughter of Candy Ride (Arg). Cheminaud, the 29-year-old native of France has ridden in Kentucky for the past two years and will ride during Gulfstream’s Championship Meet for the first time.
