HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The best race for older fillies and mares during the 2024-25 Championship meet wasn’t last month’s Grade 3 Royal Delta or Saturday’s Grade 3 Hurricane Bertie. That honor will go to a $98,000 allowance race that serves as the main event on Thursday’s card, which lured a six-horse field that includes Grade 1 winners Power Squeeze and Just F Y I, along with Gun Song, who came within a neck of defeating Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna in the Grade 1 Cotillion last September at Parx.
The one-mile headliner will mark the 2025 debuts of both Just F Y I, the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner and runner-up in the 2024 Kentucky Oaks, and Gun Song, who was freshened following her second-place finish in the Grade 2 Mother Goose 4 1/2 months ago at Aqueduct.
Power Squeeze, who defeated Candied by a head to upset the Alabama last summer at Saratoga, has already started twice at the meet and exits an eighth-place finish against males in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup here on Jan. 25.
Mark Hennig, who trains Gun Song, said he had an inkling Just F Y I might show up in the blockbuster allowance considering the conditions of the race, but admitted he was taken by surprise seeing Power Squeeze’s name in the mix when the overnight came out late Thursday afternoon.
“I was watching the timing of Just F Y I’s breezes, knew she was eligible for the condition, and thought Bill [Mott] might be asking for a race like this one the same as we were,” said Hennig. “But I never really thought about Power Squeeze being in there too.”
Hennig didn’t even nominate Gun Song for last month’s Royal Delta, noting he just didn’t believe she was ready to come back at 1 1/16 miles at that time. Unfortunately, there is no other stakes for older fillies and mares at a mile or longer on the schedule the remainder of the meet.
“Obviously you never set out to have this kind of race your first start back, or are happy going into an allowance race with a graded stakes horse and see two other graded stakes horses in there too,” said Hennig. “We don’t have the screws tightened all the way, but she’s doing super and we’ve got to get her started.”
Sunday card finishes strong
They will save the best for last on Sunday’s 10-race program, which closes with a pair of $96,000 allowances for 3-year-olds. Race 9 will be held at a mile over the main track with the finale at 1 1/16 miles on the turf, weather permitting.
Praetor will be heavily favored in the first of the two co-features, making his first start since winning as favorite by a rapidly diminishing neck over Sovereignty in a one-mile maiden test at Aqueduct on Sept. 27. Sovereignty has since gone on to flatter the effort in several subsequent starts, including his impressive victory here a week ago in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth.
Praetor set a contested pace, opened a seemingly comfortable advantage near midstretch, then narrowly outlasted a determined late rally from Sovereignty. The outing was the second for Praetor, a son of Into Mischief out of the multiple graded stakes-winning mare Curlin’s Approval, who finished third following an eventful trip going six furlongs over a muddy strip eight weeks earlier at Saratoga. Praetor has worked six times at Payson Park for trainer Chad Brown prepping for his return, which will come against just five rivals, including the Dale Romans-trained duo of C K Wonder and Kinetic Control. The latter will be adding blinkers and coming off a strong work after contesting the pace before tiring badly in the Grade 3 Holy Bull on Feb. 1.
The nightcap lured a well-matched field of 11 that features six last-out maiden winners. The group is topped by Barricade, who like Praetor, has been away since beating a strong field in a maiden at Aqueduct in September. Among his victims was Brown’s Valuation Metric, who came off his second-place finish to win his maiden against stakes competition five weeks later in the Awad.
The long list of key contenders also features Tiz Dashing, who will be equipped with blinkers for the first time, and Concord Green, the second- and third-place finishers, respectively, in the Awad, along with the stakes-placed Ready for Peace.
Anna’s Promise runs big
Anna’s Promise may have earned herself a spot in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks at the end of the month with her courageous one-length victory over Justinqueso in Thursday’s 1 1/16-mile allowance feature for 3-year-old fillies.
Ridden by Luis Saez, Anna’s Promise dueled and put away the odds-on favorite Blueberry Hill after six furlongs, then withstood a stretch-long bid from the runner-up before edging clear at the end.
Claimed for $50,000 in a two-way shake out of her previous start by trainer Carlos David for owner William Belfore, Anna’s Promise earned a career-best 85 Beyer Speed Figure.
“We’ve got to try her in a stakes next time,” said David. “She’s a 3-year-old filly, so you know the next spot. We’ve got to dream a little bit and maybe try to get some points for the [Kentucky] Oaks.”
The 1 1/16-mile Gulfstream Oaks offers 200 qualifying points for the Kentucky Oaks and will be part of the outstanding undercard on the March 29 Florida Derby program.
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