On Wednesday at Gulfstream Park, the featured race is the $60,000 Captiva Island Handicap. Scheduled to be run at five-furlongs on the turf, race has drawn a full field of twelve fillies and mares with one additional listed as an also-eligible.
Free as a Bird tops the field as the morning line favorite at 3-1 on the morning line for trainer Ian Wilkes. A six-year-old daughter of Hard Spun, the chestnut mare is a multiple stakes winner and comes into this race off of a five-race win streak, all of which came against stakes competition. She has been on the shelf since winning a minor stakes race at Keeneland in October and has been training steadily. Joel Rosario will be in the irons from post position eleven.
Second choice at 9-2 on the morning line is Fascinate for trainer Efren Loza, Jr. A five-year-old daughter of Medaglia d’Oro, she has won five of her eleven starts and will try to earn the second stakes win of her career. She is trying to rebound after finishing eleventh in the Ladies Turf Sprint at Gulfstream last time out in her first start of the year. Paco Lopez will be aboard and they are scheduled to break from the outside post.
Also in the field at morning line odds of 6-1 is Sweet Emma Rose for trainer Christophe Clement. A four-year-old daughter of City Zip owned by Robert Evans, she has won three of her eight starts and is a minor stakes winner. She returned off of a seven-month layoff in January at Tampa in the Lightning City Stakes and finished eighth. Julian Leparoux has the mount and they will break from post position ten as she makes her second start of the year.
The field is set for the $1 million Haskell, where Nyquist will be trying to re-stake his claim as the top three-year-old in the country.
On Sunday at Monmouth Park, the featured race is the $300,000 United Nations Stakes. Scheduled to be run at a mile and three-eighths on the turf, the Grade 1 event has drawn a field of ten colts and geldings.
On Sunday at Monmouth Park, the featured race is the $150,000 Pegasus Stakes, a key prep race for the Haskell Invitational (G1). The Grade 3 event will be contested at a mile and a sixteenth and has drawn a field of seven three-year-olds.
With five grade 1 races and a grade 2, the undercard for the June 11 Belmont stakes could be the best single day of racing on the calendar outside of the Breeders’ Cup.
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