$250,000 Trio of Stakes highlight Gulfstream’s card on what would have been Preakness Day.
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Gary Barber’s multiple Grade 1-winning millionaire Got Stormy, winless in a pair of starts to open her 5-year-old season, is among 28 fillies and mares nominated to $75,000 Powder Break Saturday, May 16 at Gulfstream Park.
The one-mile Powder Break on turf is one of three stakes on the program along with a pair of dirt sprints – the $100,000 Musical Romance for Florida-bred females 3 and up at seven furlongs and $75,000 Roar for 3-year-olds at 6 ½ furlongs.
Got Stormy, trained by Mark Casse, was beaten a neck when second in the Kilroe Mile (G1) March 7 at Santa Anita in her most recent start. Fourth in her 2020 debut, the Feb. 8 Endeavour (G3), the Get Stormy mare capped her 4-year-old season with a victory in the Matriarch (G1) at Del Mar.
A winner of eight races and more than $1.5 million in purse earnings from 20 lifetime starts, Got Stormy has two wins and two thirds in five tries at Gulfstream, the latest coming in a March 2019 optional claiming allowance to kick off a year where she beat males in the Fourstardave (G1) and was second in the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1).
Also prominent among nominees are multiple graded-stakes winner Valedictorian, 12-for-16 in the money at Gulfstream; Desert Ride, fifth in last year’s Queen’s Plate at Woodbine; Frond, third by a length in the Tropical Park Oaks Dec. 28 at Gulfstream; Tapit Today, third in the Suwannee River (G3) Feb. 8; and stakes winners Valiance, W W Fitzy and Zarina.
Casse has two fillies nominated to the Musical Romance in Live Oak Plantation’s 4-year-old homebred Oceans of Love and Barber’s 3-year-old Two Sixty. Oceans of Love has won two straight but has never run in a stakes and last raced Nov. 9. Two Sixty captured the FSS My Dear Girl last fall at Gulfstream and the Gasparilla Jan. 18, finishing fifth last out in the Suncoast Feb. 8, the latter two at Tampa Bay Downs.
William Stiritz’s Wildwood’s Beauty is a four-time stakes winner for trainer Scott Becker who ran second in a pair of graded-stakes during Gulfstream’s Championship Meet this winter – the Jan. 25 Inside Information (G2) and March 14 Hurricane Bertie (G3) – both at seven furlongs.
Other nominees include 2019 Comely (G3) winner Bellera, who ran her win streak to two straight in the Jan. 19 Ladies Handicap at Aqueduct; 6-year-old stakes winners Lady’s Island and Liza Star, who combined own 25 career wins; and multiple stakes winner Starship Bonita.
Stronach Stables homebred Green Light Go, who won the Saratoga Special (G2) and was second to Tiz the Law in the Champagne (G1) at 2 and ran third behind Mischevious Alex in the Swale (G3) Feb. 1 at Gulfstream in his lone start at 3, tops nominees to the Roar.
Trainer Kathy Ritvo, who won the 2017 Roar with Classic Rock, nominated both 2019 Maryland Million Nursery winner Ournationonparade and Double Crown. The Reeves Thoroughbred Racing geldings ran together in an open April 26 allowance at Gulfstream, where Double Crown was second and Ournationonparade lost its rider after clipping heels on the backstretch.
Shadybrook Farm’s homebred Cajun Brother, undefeated in two starts this spring for trainer Michael Yates; Stonehedge homebred Liam’s Lucky Charm, winner of the 2019 FSS Affirmed and 2020 Pasco Stakes; and With Verve, neck winner of the six-furlong Hutcheson Feb. 29 at Gulfstream, are also nominated.
Gulfstream Park Press Release
Photo: Gary Barber’s Got Stormy and jockey Tyler Gaffalione win the G1 Matriarch Stakes at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in December 2019. Credit: Benoit Photo
