HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Although the fall meeting doesn’t run its course until Sunday, handicappers already have the opportunity to sink their teeth into the past performances for the first card of the much-anticipated 2025-26 Gulfstream Park Championship meet, which kicks off with an abbreviated eight-race program on Thanksgiving Day. The 84-day Championship session runs through March 29.
The opening-day fare, which was drawn Thursday, is highlighted by the $100,000 Wait a While Stakes for 2-year-old fillies and also features the return of turf racing to the local area. The Wait a While is the third and last of three grass events carded on Thursday that will be decided over a course that has been freshened and kept idle since Nov. 2.
Post time for the special holiday card is 11:15 a.m., with the 7 1/2-furlong Wait a While serving as the finale. The headliner drew a full and competitive field of 10 led by likely favorite Sister Troienne along with a trio of juvenile fillies, R Slew of Cash, Spirit Doll, and Day to Day, from the barn of trainer Saffie Joseph Jr.
Trainer Brad Cox will get his Championship meet off and running in the Wait a While with debut maiden winner Amberglen, who will break from the rail. Hall of Famer Mark Casse has entered a pair of last-out maiden winners in Slippers and Backgammon.
The remainder of the field includes Haute Diva, Devilish Grin, and the French-bred Special Wood, who will be making her U.S. debut for trainer Tom Proctor. Girvana is the lone also-eligible.
The Wait a While is the first of 68 stakes to be offered during the Championship meet, which will again be highlighted by the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational and $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf on Jan. 24, and the $1 million Florida Derby on March 28. Opening-weekend stakes action also includes the $300,000 In Reality and My Dear Girl stakes, the final legs of the Florida Sire Stakes series on Saturday.
Titles on the line
Although the fall session wraps up Sunday with a modest $57,000 allowance and optional-claiming dash going six furlongs as the feature, the 11-race program could offer plenty of fireworks with the potential for both the trainer and jockey titles to be decided during the course of the afternoon.
Joseph is looking to wrap up a 14th consecutive Gulfstream training title, although he entered the final three days of the meet on Friday with only a four-win cushion over Jose D’Angelo, who appears poised for a big day Sunday. D’Angelo entered nine very live horses on the card, including potential favorites Welcome to America, Zio Mio, and Thirty Pound Test in the opening three races.
Joseph has several key contenders of his own on closing day, having entered seven runners in four different races. He will send out the class-dropping Miso Spicy against the D’Angelo pair of Snitch Dorada and Shelovestotravel in what could wind up a showdown for the title in race 9.
The fight for leading jockey could be even closer coming into closing day, with nine-time Gulfstream titleholder Edgard Zayas holding just a two-victory advantage over Miguel Vasquez and a six win lead on Emisael Jaramillo starting the final three days of the meet.
Vasquez rides Back Em Up
Back Em Up figures to be the horse to beat in the feature if able to repeat his most recent try, a 10 1/2-length mid-level conditioned claiming victory on Oct. 24 for which he earned a far and away career-best 89 Beyer Speed Figure off the claim for trainer Bob Dibona.
Back Em Up will break from the rail under Vasquez, who jumps off key contender Mr. Peeks after having guided the Beau Chapman-conditioned gelding to a strong second-place finish, beaten just a neck, under similar conditions as Sunday’s headliner four weeks ago. Vasquez will be replaced aboard Mr. Peeks by Zayas, who was aboard for the 5–year-old gelding’s latest victory against $25,000 claiming rivals here July 5.
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