BY BROCK SHERIDAN
Omaha Forty, with two recent bullet works on his resume, is among five Florida-breds in the field of nine 2-year-olds headed into the $125,000 Royal Palm Juvenile at Gulfstream Park. The Royal Palm Juvenile and the $125,000 Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies, both at five furlongs on the turf Saturday, represent the first stakes events for juveniles on the Gulfstream Park summer calendar.
The winners of both the Royal Palm Juvenile and the Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies will each earn an automatic entry into one of six juvenile stakes during the Royal Ascot meeting at Ascot Racecourse in Great Britian in June and a $25,000 equine travel stipend.
In addition to the purse money and Royal Ascot invitation, the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association offers $25,000 to a winner by a registered Florida sire and eligible for the $1 million Florida Sire Racing Incentive Program. The FSRI bonus is split $20,000 to the owner and $5,000 to the breeder of an FSRI-eligible winner.
Trained by Dante Zanelli, Omaha Forty makes his first career start Saturday after three works on three different surfaces. He breezed three furlongs on the Palm Meadows dirt in :35.65 Saturday, the fastest of 43 works at the distance. That came after breezing a half mile on the all-weather course at Gulfstream Park on April 26, the fastest move of 16 at the distance. A week earlier, he worked four furlongs on the Palm Meadows turf in :48.65, sixth fastest of 11 works at the distance.
Omaha Forty was purchased by Zanelli for $40,000 at the 2025 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearling Sale and is now owned by Nickotim Stable and Lucas Manchego.
He is by Omaha Beach out of the winning He’s Had Enough mare Wonder Blondy. Florida-bred Wonder Blondy has one other foal, Bagg O Time, a winner by Vino Roso and from the family of Grade 3 Selima Stakes-winning Florida-bred Reach the Top and Grade 3 Frances A. Genter-winning Florida-bred Changing World.
Zanelli will give a leg up on Omaha Forty to jockey Edwin Gonzalez and they have post five.
Trainer Patrick Biancone, who won last year’s Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies with future multiple graded stakes-winning Florida-bred Lennilu, will saddle Celtic Dispute in the Royal Palm Juvenile.
Celtic Dispute is one of four fillies in the race and one of four entrants with race experience.
Florida-breds Jost a Chance Yadi and Iolana and 8-5 morning line favorite Skara Brae are fillies. Jost a Chance Yadi, Skara Brae and Automatic Press all have one race under their belts.
In a four-and-a-half-furlong maiden special weight for fillies on dirt at Gulfstream on April 16, Celtic Dispute raced with eventual winning Florida-bred Boots through a half mile but surrendered in last sixteenth to finish second.
But racing on grass may be more to her liking as she is a daughter of Leinster, a multiple graded stakes winner and two-time course-record setter on turf and sire of Lennilu in his first crop to race.
Celtic Dispute has two works over the Palm Meadows grass, the most recent a five-furlong move in 1:00.95, the second fastest of five works at the distance on April 24. She also breezed four furlongs in :48.45 on the Palm Meadows turf on March 22, the 18th fastest of 52 turf works at the distance that morning.
Celtic Dispute is out of the winning Bertrando mare Bert’s Altarcation, who also produced Vulcan, a two-time stakes-placed runner as a juvenile. She was bred in Florida by K. Sheehan, M.F. Nicholson, M. Gauchat & McN Thoroughbreds and Dr. J. Speis.
She is owned by Dew Sweepers LLC, who bought her for $90,000 out of the 2025 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July Select Yearling Sale where she was consigned by VanMeter Sales.
Celtic Dispute has post three and jockey Luis Saez travels from Churchill Downs to ride.
Jost a Chance Yadi was third in the previously mentioned maiden special weight on April 16 and returns here for trainer Frank Regalbuto. She is by Chance It out of the winning Florida-bred mare Jost Sayin, by Big Drama and owned by Amanda Dann and breeder Jeffrey S. Crooks.
Yolber Torres has the return mount on Jost a Chance Yadi from the inside post one.
Florida-bred Cillian also enters off a bullet work for trainer Heather Smullen.
The bay son of Ocala Stud’s Awesome Slew worked three furlongs in :37.69 on the Gulfstream Park main track Sunday, the fastest of 13 that morning.
Cillian is out of the unraced Florida-bred mare Country Song, by Brooks ‘n Down and was bred in Florida by North Marion High School.
A two-time graduate of OBS and the Bobby Jones Equine consignment, Cillian first sold for $10,000 to JDT Racing at the 2025 Winter Mixed Sale then brought $25,000 on a final bid from current owner Sea Warrior Stables at the 2025 October Yearling Sale.
Cillian has jockey Heriberto Figueroa and post six.
Florida-bred Iolana is a daughter of freshman sire Golden Pal, a Florida-bred millionaire and multiple graded stakes winner including victories in the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (Grade 2) and 2021 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1).
Out of the unraced mare Boss Babe, by Take Charge Indy, Iolana is a homebred for Teresa and David Palmer of Jupiter, Florida and is a half-sister to Makoa, a Florida-bred winner on the grass.
Iolana is trained by Nicholas Palmer and will be ridden from the outside post nine by Marcos Meneses.
Also entered are Blackjack with Diego Herrera named to ride, Braums Run will have Samy Camacho in the irons, J.G. Torrealba has the call on Automatic Press and Joao Moreira will guide Skara Brae, another daughter of Golden Pal and a four-and-a-half-length winner of a maiden special weight at Keeneland on April 9 in her first out.
Return to the May 7 issue of Wire to Wire
