HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – While the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth and its filly counterpart, the Grade 2 Davona Dale, deserve top billing on Saturday’s 14-race program, many fans believe the return of Mindframe in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile will be the true highlight of the day.
Mindframe joined the upper echelon of the 3-year-old division last season with second-place finishes to Dornoch in the Belmont Stakes and Haskell before being sidelined the remainder of the year due to bone bruising. Fortunately, owner Mike Repole had a pretty imposing replacement for his rising star in Fierceness, who deputized for Mindframe to win the Travers before completing the season by finishing second to Sierra Leone in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Mindframe returned to training with Todd Pletcher early this winter at Palm Beach Downs and has worked eight times in preparation for his eagerly anticipated comeback, including five furlongs in a bullet 59.74 seconds while holding the edge going easiest outside workmate Speak Easy on Saturday.
“He worked really impressively [on Saturday] with Speak Easy,” Pletcher said. “He had a couple of issues last year, we just had to give him a break.
“He spent some time at Stonestreet in Ocala. He’s doing really well, he’s always been very impressive to watch breeze, and we’re really looking forward to getting him started back again in the Gulfstream Park Mile.”
Mindframe will break from the rail under regular rider Irad Ortiz Jr. while facing eight rivals led by Encino, who comes into his local debut on a four-race winning streak that includes a victory last spring in the Grade 3 Lexington at Keeneland.
As for Speak Easy, he too will return from an extended layoff here Saturday in an optional-claiming and allowance race at seven furlongs. Pletcher will be hoping things go a lot better for his lightly raced but promising colt than they did on Fountain of Youth day last year. Speak Easy ran off under Ortiz in the post parade for the Fountain of Youth, crashed into the rail in upper stretch, and was ultimately scratched after suffering lacerations on his right forearm and left hind leg.
Speak Easy would not race again until late July when he returned to capture a six-furlong, entry-level allowance at Saratoga in impressive fashion. A WinStar Farm homebred, Speak Easy started just once more in 2024, finishing ninth following a slow start in the Grade 1 Allen Jerkens.
“We made a pretty ambitious move to give him a try in the Allen Jerkens [and he] kind of needed some time after that race,” Pletcher recalled. “Looks like, physically, he’s done well, and he’s put together some nice breezes working in company with Mindframe. Hopefully, that has him prepared to run off the layoff.”
Speak Easy is one of two notable members in the field, along with Duke of Love, a Grade 3 winner for trainer Josie Carroll who has been idle since finishing fifth in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Saratoga during the summer of 2023.
Eight enter Davona Dale
The one-mile Davona Dale lured just eight 3-year-old fillies, topped by the trio of The Queens M G, Ballerina d’Oro, and La Cara.
The Queens M G, winner of the Grade 3 Adirondack by nine lengths last summer at Saratoga, is coming off a third-place finish in the seven-furlong Forward Gal. She will try a mile for just the second time, having finished a well-beaten third in the Tempted at Aqueduct in her juvenile finale.
Ballerina d’Oro began her career on turf but proved to be even better on the main track and closed her 2-year-old campaign by finishing second, beaten a length, in the Grade 2 Demoiselle going 1 1/8 miles on Dec. 7 at Aqueduct.
La Cara, winner of the Grade 3 Pocahontas at 2, launched her 3-year-old season in eye-catching fashion with an easy, 6 1/4-length triumph around two turns in the Suncoast at Tampa Bay Downs just three weeks ago.
Older claimers meet
Wednesday’s headliner is a very modest conditioned claiming event for older horses who have never won two races. Carded at a mile on turf, the race is likely to be switched to the Tapeta course with rain in the forecast locally both Monday and Tuesday.
For the Chief and Katheeb should prove the major beneficiaries of a surface change as the only two members of the eight-horse lineup to have previously won over a synthetic track. For the Chief captured a maiden special weight on this surface late last summer, while Katheeb graduated in wire-to-wire fashion when launching his career at Turfway Park in December 2023.
◗ Management has announced there will be yet another Rainbow 6 mandatory payout on Sunday, this one coming just 15 days after the previous force out resulted in a payoff of $164,292 for a 20-cent ticket on Feb. 15. There will be a carryover of $221,510 coming into Wednesday’s card.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.