HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A pair of Grade 2 winners looking to recapture their best form, Five G and Sugar Fish, will square off going a mile on the main track in an $87,000 conditioned allowance Friday at Gulfstream Park.
Five G has not won a race since registering a 2 1/4-length victory here in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks in March 2025. Sugar Fish is winless since capturing the Grade 2 Zenyatta at Santa Anita during the fall of 2024. Both horses qualify for Friday’s race as the result of a clause in the conditions for horses who have not won a race since April 13, 2025.
Five G was the queen of the local 3-year-old filly division here last winter, having won the one-mile Cash Run by nine lengths as a prelude to her popular triumph in the 1 1/16-mile Gulfstream Park Oaks. She sandwiched those two wins around a second-place finish in the Grade 3 Honeybee at Oaklawn Park.
The Gulfstream Park Oaks was supposed to serve as a stepping-stone for Five G to enter the Kentucky Oaks five weeks later. Unfortunately, trainer George Weaver opted to scratch her the day before the race, citing the fact he was just not pleased with the way she was coming into the race. She would not run again for nine months, returning with a disappointing ninth-place finish in the Grade 1 La Brea on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita.
“We don’t exactly know what went wrong in her last start. We don’t have a real excuse. She just didn’t fire off the bench,” Weaver said Wednesday. “Maybe it was having to adjust getting in behind horses in a fast-pace race or the long van ride out there. But we’re happy with her breezes since she’s been back, and she’s obviously shown a fondness for this racetrack, although it appears to me that the track seems to be a little different this year as opposed to last.”
Sugar Fish won both the Grade 2 Summertime Oaks and Zenyatta as a prelude to her fifth-place finish in the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar. She was given eight months off by trainer Jeff Mullins after closing her 2024 campaign with a third-place showing in the La Brea, returning to finish off the board in her only two starts in 2025. Those included a non-menacing fourth-place finish in defense of her title in the Zenyatta.
Sugar Fish was subsequently purchased by Miller Racing at the 2025 Fasig-Tipton November sale and turned over to trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. shortly thereafter.
“We’ve had her since December, and she is training well, although she’s not a flashy work horse,” Joseph said. “She’s obviously run some big races, had time off, and her two starts after the layoff were below par. This seems like the right spot to get her started and find out where we are with her.”
Five G will be facing a couple of familiar faces in Anna’s Promise and Cassiar, who finished second and third, respectively, while never seriously menacing the winner in the 2025 Gulfstream Park Oaks.
Anna’s Promise qualified for the 2025 Kentucky Oaks by virtue of her runner-up finish in the Gulfstream Park Oaks, finishing fifth after prompting the pace to the stretch. She has started just twice since, beaten double-digit lengths in both races, including a tiring fifth under allowance conditions here last month. She will race with blinkers for the first time Friday.
Contrary, a Godolphin homebred trained by Brendan Walsh, has the best recent form of any member of the lineup. However, she will be taking a big step up in class off a 1 1/4-length victory against lesser opposition going a mile here Jan. 8.
No firm plans for Pegasus pair
Joseph said Wednesday that plans remain up in the air for both Skippylongstocking and White Abarrio, who finished first and second, respectively, here three weeks ago in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup.
“Both horses are galloping on a regular basis, but nothing is etched in stone for either of them right now,” Joseph said. “White Abarrio could make his next start in the Challenger [on March 7]. The Dubai World Cup is still on the table for Skippy, but nothing is definite for him yet.”
Skippylongstocking has won each of the last three renewals of the Grade 3 Challenger at Tampa Bay Downs.
Joseph will be well-represented in Saturday’s Grade 3 Royal Delta. The trainer has entered three of the eight potential starters in the one-mile filly and mare fixture – Eunomia, Claret Beret, and Dazzling Move, who won last year’s Royal Delta.
“Right now, I’m planning to run all three,” Joseph said Wednesday. “If I decide to take one of them out, it would be Dazzling Move.”
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