BY GULFSTREAM PARK PRESS OFFICE
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Daugherty Racing LLC and Kelly Ramsey’s Striking Finale will seek her fourth victory in five starts since joining trainer Nolan Ramsey’s stable while making her stakes debut in the $75,000 Cellars Shiraz at Gulfstream Park Friday. The Cellars Shiraz is a mile-and-one-sixteenth stakes for 3-year-old fillies scheduled for turf.
Striking Finale, a daughter of Hard Spun and claimed for $50,000 out of a late-closing runner-up finish on April 23 at Gulfstream in her eighth career start, graduated in her first race for Ramsey in a mile-and-a-sixteenth maiden special weight for Florida-bred fillies on Tapeta.
“I’m always looking for horses that want to go two turns on the grass and it was certainly her. I watched several of her replays leading up to the day of the claim. I really liked the way she ran,” Ramsey said of his attraction to the Live Oak Plantation homebred for her breeding and off-the-pace running style. “She’s very consistent. It just seemed to me she’d like more ground, and I still feel that way today.”
Striking Finale came up a half-length short of winning her first start against winners in a $50,000 optional claiming, $35,000 starter allowance going a mile on turf but came right back to win her next two starts going away on turf, first under the same conditions at a mile-and-a-sixteenth on August 2 then in a and a mile allowance for Florida-bred fillies and mares.
“A mile is about as short as I’d ever want to run her. Obviously, I’d like to find some longer races for her. Nine and 10 furlongs is probably going to be her calling,” Ramsey said. “Being a Florida-bred and having all the conditions we have left, we wanted to take advantage of the conditions on hand and run her through her conditions. We’re probably at the point now where we’re going to try stepping out and trying new things.”
Striking Finale, who is priced at 8-1 on the morning-line in a field of 10 entered in the Shiraz, will be coming off a two-and-a-half-month freshening.
“She really hadn’t had a break and I believe we ran her August 2 and then we came back on two weeks rest and ran her again. I just felt – two really good races, not a whole lot of time between them – she earned some time,” Ramsey said. “We always had this race in the back of our mind. I just wanted to give her enough time to recuperate and bring her in nice and fresh. She couldn’t be doing any better.”
Diego Herrera, who has been aboard for her first four starts for her new connections, has the return call Friday.
Other Florida-breds set for the Shiraz are stakes-placed Bayou Brigid for trainer Heather Smullen and the Gary Jackson-trained Rogue Runner.
Consistently producing a check this year with five top three finishes, two of which are wins, in seven starts at Gulfstream, Bayou Brigid won a first condition allowance race for Florida-bred fillies going a mile-and-sixteenth on the lawn in May and a first conditon, $25,000 optional claiming going a mile on the turf on July 13. Also third in the $77,000 Martha Washington going a mile-and-sixteenth on Tapeta, Bayou Brigid makes her first start since August 22 when fourth in the $84,000 Miss Gracie going a mile on the turf.
Her career record reflects three wins, two seconds and three thirds in 13 starts with earnings of $196,925 for owner Sea Warrior Stables and Smullen. She was a $20,000 purchase by Smullen at this year’s OBS Spring Sale where she was consigned by Sergio Centeno’s Blue River Bloodstock.
Bayou Brigid is by Pleasant Acres Stallions’ mainstay Neolithic out of Courageous Cajun, by Treasure Beach (GB) and was bred in Florida by Helen and Joseph Barbazon of Morriston.
Bayou Brigid has drawn the rail and will have Leonel Reyes up. She is 10-1 on the morning line.
Rogue Runner goes back to the turf after two races on synthetic, the last a length-and-a-quarter victory in a $50,000 optional claiming starter allowance going a mile-and-70 yards at Guflstream on October 2. On September 6, the bay daughter of Solera Farm stallion Rogueish was third in a first condition, $25,000 optional claiming at the same distance.
Reliable with two wins, three seconds and a third in 10 starts this year for William G. Law, who owns her with Jackson, Rogue Runner is a two-time winner on the Gulfstream grass course, the last by six-and-a-quarter lengths in a five-furlong $35,000 optional claiming starter allowance in March.
Rogue Runner is out of The Roving Kind, by Congrats and was bred in Florida by Lynne Boutte of Williston and Ellen Epstein of Ocala. Her career record is three wins with five seconds and two thirds in 15 starts with earnings of $133,545.
Boutte consigned her to the 2024 OBS October Yearling Sale where Law took her for $5,000.
Miguel Vasquez has the riding assignment from the outside post 10 and they are 30-1 in the program.
Rounding out the field are Pure Eloquence with jockey Micah Husbands, Jose Morelos has the call on Bert’s Knoty Girl, Little Georgie will have Rasheed Hughes in the saddle, Mario Gutierrez will steer Super Sienna, Come On Teesha will have Jonathan Ocasio in the irons. Day to Day will have Edwin Gonzalez in the saddle and Cryingintherain teams with J.G. Torrealba.
–Brock Sheridan contributed to this article
Return to the October 29 issue of Wire to Wire
