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Gulfstream Card Will Feature Tropical Park Derby, Oaks

Author: Don Mckee
Published: Friday December 27, 2019
Current 3-year-old turf runners in South Florida still have time to showcase their skills at Gulfstream Park before the beginning of the new year. Some of the final age-restricted stakes opportunities will come as the track offers the $75,000 Tropical Park Derby for 3-year-olds, as well as the $75,000 Tropical Park Oaks for 3-year-old fillies. 

On the race card, there will be a total of six stakes races scheduled for the turf. Another one of those races is the $75,000 Via Borghese Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 3/16 miles on the turf, while another is the $100,000 H. Allen Jerkens Stakes at two miles on the turf for 3-year-olds and older. Turf sprinters will get the chance to contest the Janus and Abundantia stakes. 

Carnival Colors

The Tropical Park Oaks, run at 1 1/16 miles, features the Virginia Oaks winner Carnival Colors. She will take a shot at getting her second stakes win of the season. Carnival Colors is conditioned by Michael Stidham, and she is part of Godolphin. 

In her last race, Carnival Colors finished ninth in the Oct. 18 Pin Oak Valley Stakes at Keeneland. That race came after the daughter of Distorted scored a clear victory in the Virginia Oaks. 

Team Valor International’s Devant and Jais’ Solitude 

Team Valor International’s Devant, a group 3 winner in France, will make her United States stakes debut. The daughter of Showcasing is coming off a third-place finish in a Nov. 9 allowance-level race at Churchill Downs turf. Our Bay B Ruth, the winner of that race, will also run on Saturday. 

Black Ship Racing, Brian Chenvert, and Eddie Kenneally’s Jais’ Solitude will be looking for his first stakes win in the 1 1/16-mile Tropical Park Derby. The son of Afleet Alex finished second by a nose to English Bee, who is also entered Saturday, in the Virginia Derby (G3T) in August. He was then disqualified to sixth after interfering in the stretch. 

Before that, he finished first in the Bald Eagle Derby Sept. 21 at Laurel Park. 

Calumet Farm’s English Bee will be going for a third straight stakes win. The son of English Channel scored a victory in the Parx Fall Derby after his win in the Virginia Derby. 

The Via Borghese will see Robert Slack’s Lucky Long go for her fourth win this season on the Gulfstream turf. The 5-year-old Lookin at Lucky mare is coming off a victory in a Claiming Crown race, the Tiara, Dec. 7 at Gulfstream. 

Salute the Colonel will be shooting for his fourth win on the Gulfstream turf this season. He will be starting in the Jerkens distance test. The 5-year-old son of Colonel John took three straight stakes on the Gulfstream grass earlier this year, and he is coming off a runner-up finish in a local starter-optional claiming race Dec. 1.

Mr. Amore Stable’s Vision Perfect finished off the board in three straight starts, but the son of Pollard’s Vision will defend his 2018 victory in the Jansus, for 3-year-olds. Trinton Stable, Brian Chenvert, and Eddie Kenneally’s Girls Know Best will return to defend last year’s victory in the Abundantia, for fillies and mares.