Facing Fellow Stakes Winners Miss Auramet, Miss J McKay in Turf Dash
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Gary Barber, Terry Hamilton and trainer Brian Lynch’s multiple stakes winner Tobys Heart will be back doing what she does best when the Jack Milton filly launches her 4-year-old season in Saturday’s $100,000 Captiva Island at Gulfstream Park.
The eighth running of the five-furlong Captiva Island for fillies and mares 4 and up is the second of two stakes on a program headlined by the $100,000 Hurricane Bertie (G3) for older females sprinting six furlongs on the main track.
First race post time is 12:35 p.m.
Tobys Heart is coming off an eighth-place finish in the 1 1/16-mile Tropical Park Oaks Dec. 26 at Gulfstream. Winless in six tries at distances of seven furlongs or more, she is 4-0 when racing at 6 ½ furlongs or shorter.
“I certainly didn’t foresee her chasing the speed that day, so it was sort of a throw-out race. Although I felt like she could go two turns, I’m going to take the safe route and back her up and get her back to what she’s been very effective at, sprinting,” Lynch said. “That’s probably the safest route with her. I think she can go anywhere from five to seven [furlongs]. Hopefully she gives us a good effort this weekend and makes us look forward to the rest of the year.”
Tobys Heart broke her maiden on debut and won the 2020 Bolton Landing at Saratoga second time out, both going 5 ½ furlongs, but injury kept her from making the Breeders’ Cup. Sixth in the 1 1/16-mile Herecomesthebride (G3) at Gulfstream to open 2021, she subsequently won the 5 ½-furlong Limestone Turf Sprint at Keeneland.
Second in the Tepin and third in the Lake George (G3), both at one mile, Tobys Heart’s last victory came in the 6 ½-furlong Music City at Kentucky Downs.
“She’s a very quirky filly. She’s got a bad little temper but usually some of the good ones are that way. She’s really developed into a lovely, big, strong mare. She’s in her 4-year-old year now and she’s good-sized, she carries great weight and she’s a powerful sort of filly,” Lynch said. “We’ve gave her that bit of a freshening and waited for this race. Hopefully we get back on track with her and it sets her up for down the road.”
Emisael Jaramillo is named to ride Tobys Heart from Post 3 in a field of eight.
Multiple stakes winners Miss Auramet and Miss J McKay have taken turns beating each other this winter and will meet for the third straight race in the Captiva Island. David Melin, Leon Ellman and Laurie Plesa’s Miss Auramet was a front-running winner of the five-furlong Ladies’ Turf Sprint Feb. 12 at Gulfstream, where she has been third or better 12 times in 16 starts, five of them wins.
Miss Auramet capped 2021 running a troubled sixth to Miss J McKay in the Dec. 31 Abundantia, also going five furlongs on the Gulfstream turf.
“She came out of the last race 100 percent and she’s training great. We couldn’t be any more pleased with the way she’s coming into this race,” trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. “The trip is everything. That’s something you don’t have any control over. I don’t get too upset about things like that because it could be the luck of the draw, post position.
“In her particular case, two starts back it was almost a comedy of errors – hitting the side of the gate, being rushed up, having to stop, go to the outside. That’s just too many things for anybody to overcome,” he added. “So she was rewarded in her last start with a clean trip and proved what’s she’s capable of. That’s just horse racing.”
Julien Leparoux, up last time, gets the return call from Post 4.
Madaket Stables, Wonder Stables, Tony Weintraub and Brandon Dalinka’s Miss J McKay got pinched back and was forced to check in the Ladies’ Turf Sprint and wound up fourth, beaten less than three lengths. The effort snapped a two-race win streak for the 5-year-old mare, trained by Christophe Clement.
“She came out in very good shape. I was going to give her a bit more time but she’s doing great. She looks great. I tried to work as hard as I could to find a reason not to run, but I can’t. She’s doing too well,” Clement said. “She’s fast. I like fast horses. They win more often than the slow ones.”
Miss J McKay drew Post 5 and will be ridden for the third straight race by Tyler Gaffalione.
“She looks good. She’s ready to go. It’s always competitive. It’s a stakes at Gulfstream and it’s never easy. Hopefully we can get a good draw and she can run her race,” Clement said. “I thought it was very unlucky for her to stumble at the worst time of the race last time. [It was a] slow pace, [and] they finished very fast. By the time she started running, they were all running in front of her. I don’t think she ran a bad race, just the race was against her. No racing luck. The filly is doing well so let’s try again.”
Completing the field are St. Elias Stable’s A G Indy, winner of the Senator Ken Maddy in November at Del Mar who ran eighth in Gulfstream’s Jan. 29 Inside Information (G2) for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher; Whisper Hill Farm homebred Bernie’s Mistress; ProRacing Stable, Al Bianchi Racing and Corms Racing Stable’s Headline Hunter, last out winner sprinting five furlongs on the Gulfstream Tapeta Feb. 9; Tracy Farmer homebred La Libertee, unraced since finishing third in the Hendrie (G3) and Bessarabian (G2) at Woodbine to end 2021; and Mercy Man Racing’s Naughty Shirley, exiting a six-furlong allowance win over a sloppy main track Nov. 19 at Gulfstream.
Gulfstream Park Press Release
Photo of Tobys Heart by Coglianese Photos
