BY GULFSTREAM PARK PRESS OFFICE (Edited)
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL—D. J. Stable and Robert Cotran’s promising filly Winplaceandshow, exiting a career-best effort, chases a third consecutive victory when she makes her stakes debut against five other last-out winners in Saturday’s $100,000 Azalea at Gulfstream Park.
The Azalea had attracted seven 3-year-old fillies that will sprint seven furlongs on the main track.
Bred in Florida by Brereton C. Jones and purchased for $90,000 out of 2024 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Winplaceandshow is among three horses eligible for a $25,000 bonus through the Florida-Bred Incentive Fund. The others are her Joe Orseno-trained stablemate, Cotran’s Win Bet Only, and Flying Finish Farm homebred Flowko.
“We were pretty high on her when we bought her and she came in and looked good and trained great into her first race. She just got better from there,” Orseno said of Winplaceandshow. “She’s earned a shot in here for sure.”
Winplaceandshow ran third to May 15 Black-Eyed Susan (G2) winning Florida-bred My Miss Mo in her debut last November, two-and-a-half lengths behind runner-up Win Bet Only. Winplaceandshow came back with a popular and convincing open maiden score going six-and-a-half furlongs in December.
After finishing fourth against the boys in a seven-furlong state-bred allowance on January 29 to launch her sophomore campaign, Winplaceandshow was a determined front-running head winner of a similar spot versus Florida-bred fillies on March 20. She followed up with a dominant seven-and-a-half-length romp in an upper level, $75,000 optional claiming against open company on May 10 at the Azalea distance.
“She’s been a pretty honest filly for us. She ran the way I thought she would that day. She ran very well,” Orseno said of her last race. “We’ve been happy with her.”
Her last race computed to a career high 75 Beyer Speed Figure, second-best in the field behind Late Night Text’s 83.
Winplaceandshow is by Ocala Stud’s Win Win Win out of Honey Talk, by Distorted Humor. She has three wins in five starts with one second with earnings of $106,930.
Edwin Gonzalez, up for the most recent effort, gets the return call from post one. They are the second choice in the program at 2-1.
“She can sit off the pace. She’ll do whatever you want her to do. That’s the beauty of her,” Orseno said. “She’s just a young filly. Her future’s in front of her.”
Orseno said he was unsure whether Win Bet Only would run. She has one win from a field-high 13 career starts, a $25,000 maiden claiming triumph going seven furlongs on February 8 at Tampa Bay Downs. She ran in two legs of the FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes Series last fall, finishing third behind Florida-bred graded stakes-winner Mythical in November’s My Dear Girl.
Also by Win Win Win, Win Bet Only is out of Polo Union, by Union Rags and was bred in Florida by Paul LeMaster. She has earnings of $75,365 from her one victory, two seconds and a third.
Win Bet Only drew post five and Miguel Vasquez has the riding assignment with 20-1 morning line odds.
Bred, owned and trained by Rory Miller, Flowko is out of the With Distinction mare Vino de Pago and is a half-sister to 5-year-old stakes-winning mare Let’s Go Koko, who owns nine wins and more than $300,000 in earnings from 28 starts.
Flowko has been third or better in eight of her 12 races, two of them wins, the most recent in a six-and-a-half-furlong state-bred allowance sprint over older horses May 31 at Gulfstream. That race followed back-to-back thirds in Tampa’s seven-furlong Stonehedge Farm Sophomore Fillies on March 29 and Gulfstream’s six-furlong FHBPA Sophomore Fillies Sprint on April 25.
“I made a little equipment change on her and I think it probably helped her. She came out of the race perfect,” Miller said. “I wasn’t planning on running back in this race, it was only three weeks, but it was coming up light and she sort of galloped through her last race. She wasn’t very tired afterward. It wasn’t like she got pressed hard, so we thought we’d go ahead and give her a chance.”
Flowko is two-for-five on Gulfstream’s main track, graduating by a nose in a six-furlong maiden special eight and finishing tenth to Mythical in the seven-furlong Susan’s Girl division of the Florida Sire Stakes 15 days apart last October. She has hit the board in each of her last six starts, two of them coming on the turf.
“About a month before [the Florida Sire Stakes], she came home from her win at Gulfstream with the worst skin rash. I’ve never seen one that bad. I had to really work on it,” Miller said. “I never should have never ran her. She fought that skin infection for a month and I think it just drained her. She didn’t show up and then after that she was fine after she cleared that out.”
Flowko finished third behind subsequent Miss Preakness (G3) runner-up Tessellate in her second and most recent try at seven furlongs, the farthest she’s ever run.
“I feel pretty good about it. I think we can be pretty competitive in there,” Miller said. “[Trainer] Saffie Joseph [Jr.]’s got one in there that looks like it broke its maiden nicely and Orseno has that one that looks pretty nice. It’s hard to divide a bunch of them up. They’re all just nice hard-knocking fillies. I think it’s going to be whoever gets the trip and has a good day is probably the winner.”
Flowko is by Arindel stallion Brethren and sports two wins with three seconds and three thirds with earnings of $136,680.
Samy Camacho will guide her from post two and they are 8-1 on the morning line.
The remainder of the field includes 9-5 morning line favorite Late Night Text with jockey Micah Husbands, Rasheed Hughes will be aboard Sorokin, Permian Basin with jockey Diego Herrera and Renzo Rojas rides Wander Woman.
Return to the June 18 issue of Wire to Wire
