Dazzling Move defeats favored Grand Job in two-turn debut. (Lauren King)
David Joseph/Gulfstream Park
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Miller Racing’s Dazzling Move, purchased privately last month, paid immediate dividends for her new connections by running down favored Grand Job in deep stretch and edging clear to a three-quarter-length victory in Saturday’s $165,000 Royal Delta (G3) at Gulfstream Park.
The 35th running of the 1 1/16-mile Royal Delta for older fillies and mares honors the three-time champion that won 12 of 22 starts including Gulfstream’s 2013 Sabin (G3) – renamed in 2015 for the Hall of Fame mare.
Ridden by Dylan Davis, Dazzling Move ($9.20) covered the distance in 1:45.08 over a fast main track to earn her first career stakes victory in her graded debut. It was also the first time around two turns for the 4-year-old filly, who gave trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. his second straight Royal Delta win and fourth overall following Honor D Lady (2024), Queen Nekia (2021) and Cookie Dough (2020).
“This is big. To already win a Grade 3 on the dirt, everything else is a bonus now,” Joseph said. “There was no plan after this, basically. We’ll try to keep her two turns and go from there.”
Multiple stakes winner Intrepid Daydream, one of three Joseph-trained horses in the race, was intent on the lead and sent from the gate by jockey Edwin Gonzalez but outrun to the front by Grand Job, the 4-5 favorite that won each her two North American starts last year by 14 ¼ combined lengths.
Jockey Junior Alvarado kept Grand Job in the clear two wide while running the opening quarter-mile in 22.81 seconds, with 30-1 longshot Intrepid Daydream racing second on the rail. Davis was unhurried sitting behind the embattled duo, who went a half-mile in 46.21, and moved up to second leaving the far turn after six furlongs in 1:10.98.
Grand Job straightened for home in command and began to pull away in mid-stretch and appeared on the way to victory, but Dazzling Move had more left and continued to close under Davis’ urging for her fourth win and first beyond one mile in 15 starts. Autumn Evening, trained by fellow four-time Royal Delta winner and Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, closed with aplomb to get third.
“[Intrepid Daydream] was going to make the lead and Junior didn’t want to let her make the lead, and he kind of put her tight down the backside. I think that kind of cost him, pace scenario-wise,” Joseph said. “I thought we had the run of the race and then at the quarter pole I thought we were done. I was like, ‘Geez, we still can’t beat that horse.’ When she dug in the last sixteenth I thought she had a chance to get it done and when I saw Todd’s horse closing I was like, ‘I hope she doesn’t run both of us down.’ Thank God she was able to hold on.”
Multiple stakes winner Miss New York was fourth, followed by Riding Pretty, Neon Icon, Libban, Foreseen, American Retro and Intrepid Daydream. Five-time stakes-placed mare Dream Concert was scratched.
“Saffie told me coming into here he’s been training her to relax a little bit early. She’d been getting kind of keen coming out of there. He just wanted me to break smartly and well enough to get into a good pace into the first turn,” Davis said. “I liked what I saw there.
“[Intrepid Daydream] and [Grand Job] really got into a hot pace. We were laying third. She was grabbing me wanting to get involved, but I was able to talk her out of it and relax. She really got into a good rhythm into the second turn. I thought we were in trouble when [Grand Job] Junior were getting into a good rhythm in front, but she really persevered for us and found a little extra.”
Dazzling Move had placed twice in six prior stakes attempts and was most recently fourth facing older horses in the Dec. 26 Rampart at Gulfstream for previous trainer Mike Trombetta. Owner Myron Miller consulted with Joseph before pulling the trigger on a private purchase of the Not This Time filly.
“Give a ton of credit to Trombetta. We’ve only had her 19 days,” Joseph said. “She was up for sale, and I told Myron, ‘Buy her, and if everything goes right, we can go in the Royal Delta,’ but everything had to be aligned. We were able to get two works into her.
“We bought her to try two turns. We didn’t know if she could go two turns, but she had won a one-turn mile three times and never went two turns on the dirt. And she ran once on the grass and it wasn’t a bad run,” he added. “With horses you always to try things that haven’t been done, and it worked out.”
