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Mystic Guide Romps Over Sloppy Track In Razorback Handicap

Godolphin homebred Mystic Guide had never run on anything other than a fast track during his six-race career, but the Ghostzapper 4-year-old colt took to a very sloppy surface at Oaklawn on Saturday, winning the 62nd running of the Grade 3, $600,000 Razorback Handicap by six lengths under Luis Saez.

Silver Prospector finished second, with 7-5 favorite Owendale another 1 1/4 lengths back in third and Hunka Burning Love fourth in the field of seven older runners.

Mystic Guide covered 1 1/16 miles in 1:44.33 and paid $6.40 to win as the 2-1 second choice in the wagering. He carried 121 pounds as the high weight under the handicap conditions.

Heavy rain hit the Hot Springs, Ark., track on Saturday and the Razorback was delayed for a few minutes as the track crew worked on the sloppy surface. The race had been postponed twice because of the winter storm that hit the South earlier this month.

Hunka Burning Love went to the front, out-hustling Long Range Toddy and Mystic Guide to take the early lead and setting fractions of :23.69, :47.61, and 1:12.99 for the first six furlongs. Long Range Toddy sat second, with Silver Prospector along the rail in third, alongside Mailman Money in the run down the backstretch.

Mystic Guide commenced his rally approaching the far turn, and was out in the middle of the track when he took the lead at the top of the stretch. He passed the mile marker in 1:38.08 and continued to widen his advantage in the final furlong.

Silver Prospector saved ground but may have been on the deepest part of the track along the rail. Owendale was never a factor, racing far back in the early stages of the race and rallying late to get third.

The win was the third from seven starts for Mystic Guide, who was produced from the A.P. Indy mare Music Note. He was making his first start since finishing second last Oct. 10 in the G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup to Happy Saver. Prior to that, Mystic Guide won the G2 Jim Dandy at Saratoga.

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Monomoy Girl Makes Highly Anticipated Return in Bayakoa

Dual champion Monomoy Girl (Tapizar) makes her highly anticipated seasonal debut–albeit two weeks later than planned–Saturday in the delayed GIII Bayakoa S. at Oaklawn.

Named champion 3-year-old filly after a sensational 2018 season, the chestnut was a perfect four-for-four last term after spending all of 2019 on the sidelines due to colic and a hamstring injury. Returning from an 18-month layoff at Churchill May 16, Monomoy Girl scored a decisive victory in a sloppy optional claimer and captured Belmont's GII Ruffian S. next out July 11. A facile winner of the GI La Troienne S. at Churchill Sept. 4, she clinched her second Eclipse award with another victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff at Keeneland Nov. 7. Sent through the ring across town at Fasig-Tipton the very next day, Monomoy Girl was the star of the show, topping the sale on a $9.5-million bid from Spendthrift Farm and was returned to the Brad Cox barn for a 2021 campaign. In the interim, original owner Sol Kumin of Madaket Stables bought back in as co-owner and My Racehorse has also joined in as a lease partner.

This event will likely be bet as a one-horse affair, but the second best horse on paper is Finite (Munnings). Winner of the GII Rachel Alexandra S. last term, the chestnut was shelved after finishing fourth in the GII Fair Grounds Oaks in March. Trying turf in her return to action in the Music City S. at Kentucky Downs Sept. 15, the $200,000 EASMAY buy showed the grass was not for her, finishing 11th. Missing by a neck to another daughter of Munnings in Venetian Harbor in Keeneland's GII Raven Run S. Oct. 17, Finite made amends with a win in the GIII Chilukki S. at Churchill Nov. 21 and rallied to be fourth in the GI La Brea S. at Santa Anita Dec. 26.

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Saturday’s Insights: Charlatan Half-Brother Gets Going at Gulfstream

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency
5th-Gulfstream, $55K, Msw, 3yo, 1m, post time: 1:24 p.m. ET
Given his name, it might be more fitting if Peter Brant's BENNYFROMTHEBRONX (Tapit) were making his first trip to the races at the Jersey Shore, but instead, the half-brother to GISW 'TDN Rising Star' and recent Saudi Cup runner-up Charlatan (Speightstown) gets his career started at Gulfstream Park Saturday afternoon. The bay, a $300,000 Keeneland September acquisition, is the latest to the races from his dam, two-time graded winner and three-time Grade I-placed Authenticity (Quiet American), who is also responsible for SW Hanalei Moon. The colt's third dam is Gallagher's Stud's Appealing Missy (Lypheor {GB}), who produced SW & GSP Statement (Seattle Slew) and the stakes-placed dam of GSW & GISP New York-bred Rahys' Appeal (Rahy). The Chad Brown trainee will have to deal with second-time starter Collaborate (Into Mischief), who was profiled in Steve Sherack's Second Chances column earlier this week. TJCIS PPs

Well-Related Shadwell Firster Kicks Things Off…
1st-Gulfstream, $55K, Msw, 3yo, f, 7f, post time: 11:30 a.m. ET
Trainer Todd Pletcher takes the wraps off Shadwell homebred SIBAAQ (Bernardini) in the Saturday lid-lifter in Hallandale. The Apr. 20 foal is out of the unraced Sablah (Distorted Humor), whose son Takaful (Bernardini) became a 'TDN Rising Star' with an eight-length debut romp in late 2016 and later–reinvented as a one-turn horse–took out the 2018 GI Vosburgh S. Sablah is also the dam of Haikal (Daaher), a maiden winner at second asking whose marquee victory came in the GIII Gotham S. in 2019. European champion Shadayid (Shadeed) and 2001 G1 English 1000 Guineas heroine is Sibaaq's third dam. TJCIS PPs

Oaklawn Debutant the Product of Champions…
9th-Oaklawn, $86K, Msw, 3yo, 6f, post time: 5:25 p.m. ET
Storm Song (Summer Squall), the Eclipse Award-winning juvenile filly of 1996, and Uncle Mo, champion of his generation in 2010, are the dam and sire, respectively, of Aaron Sones's homebred MY FAVORITE UNCLE. The May-foaled dark bay is a half-brother to GISP Trojan Nation (Street Cry {Ire}); MGSP Balladry (Unbridled's Song); and to the dam of the legendary European stayer and MG1SW Order of St George (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and GSWs Angel Terrace (Ghostzapper) and Asperity (War Chant). Lazaretto (Hard Spun) is a son of the fleet MSW Mother Ruth (Speightstown), a $420,000 purchase by Highland Yard out of the 2016 Keeneland January Sale. A half-brother to GSW Yuvetsi (Bodemeister), Lazaretto is bred on the same cross over Gone West-line dams responsible for this sire's GISWs Spun To Run and Out for a Spin and three other of Hard Spun's 41 worldwide graded/group winners. TJCIS PPs

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Weekend Lineup: Trio Of Eclipse Award Winners Back In Action

Three Eclipse Award winners will be in action this weekend with reigning juvenile male champion Essential Quality – the top-ranked horse on the NTRA Top Three-Year-Old Thoroughbred Poll – headlining the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park, champion 2-year-old filly Vequist making her seasonal bow in the Davona Dale Stakes at Gulfstream Park, and champion older dirt female Monomoy Girl getting her 6-year-old campaign started in Sunday's Grade 3 Bayakoa Stakes at Oaklawn. In addition, Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Fire At Will is set to be part of the field of 10 in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes, which will anchor Saturday's 14-race program with nine stakes at Gulfstream Park.

America's Day at the Races, the acclaimed national telecast produced by the New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) in partnership with FOX Sports, will air eight total hours of live racing coverage this weekend encompassing action from Aqueduct Racetrack, Oaklawn Park and Gulfstream Park.

Presented by America's Best Racing and Claiborne Farm, America's Day at the Races will broadcast from 2-7 p.m. ET on Saturday on FS2, while Sunday will feature coverage on FS2 from 4-5 p.m. with FS1 airing the program from 5-7 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 27

12:26 p.m.—$100,000 Grade 3 Herecomesthebride Stakes at Gulfstream Park on TVG

We Got This Stables' I Get It will go for her first graded-stakes victory in Saturday's Herecomesthebride, a 1 1/16-miles turf stakes for 3-year-old fillies. I Get It has won four of her last five starts by a combined 14 ¾ lengths in going-away fashion while demonstrating an explosive late kick and a distinct fondness for the Gulfstream turf course. She broke through with a five-length maiden victory while not being equipped with the blinkers she wore in her first two unsuccessful starts. She came right back to capture a pair of optional claiming allowances at Gulfstream Park West before lacking her usual late kick in a fourth-place finish in the Jan. 2 Ginger Brew at Gulfstream. She bounced back with a sharp three-length optional claiming allowance score in her most recent start.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/GP022721USA3-EQB.html

12:55 p.m.—$200,000 Grade 2 Mac Diarmida Stakes at Gulfstream Park on TVG

It's all about threes when trainer Mike Maker sends out the trio of Aquaphobia, Temple and Tide of the Sea in search of a third consecutive victory in Saturday's 1 3/8-miles Mac Diarmida for older turf horses. Aquaphobia became a Grade 1 winner in last summer's United Nations at Monmouth, coming five starts since being claimed for $62,500 last winter at Gulfstream and run at the Mac Diarmida distance. This will be the seventh consecutive race facing graded company for Aquaphobia, who exits an eighth-place finish in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/GP022721USA4-EQB.html

2:53 p.m.—$125,000 Grade 3 Canadian Turf Stakes at Gulfstream Park on FS2 and TVG

After two uncharacteristic off-the-board performances, Fancy Liquor steps right back into graded stakes company Saturday in the 54th running of Canadian Turf Stakes. Fancy Liquor, bred and owned by Louisville Ky.-based Skychai Racing and partners, had a very good 3-year-old season in 2020 for trainer Mike Maker. The son of Lookin at Lucky won three of eight starts – topped by a victory in the Grade 2 American Turf – and earned $497,187. His run of seven-straight in-the-money finishes to begin his career ended with a fifth in the Tropical Park Derby at Gulfstream. In his most recent start, he was sixth in the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Stakes.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/GP022721USA8-EQB.html

3:27 p.m.—$200,000 Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile Stakes at Gulfstream Park on FS2 and TVG

Phipps Stable and Claiborne Farm's Performer, who captured the Grade 3 Fred W. Hooper, will seek to produce an encore performance in Saturday's Gulfstream Park Mile. Trained by Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey, the 5-year-old son of Speightstown is slated to top a field of seven older horses in the one-turn mile event. Joel Rosario worked out a winning trip aboard Performer after breaking from the rail post position in the Hooper, also run at a one-turn mile. Pinned down on the rail along the backstretch, Performer was swung to the outside on the turn into the homestretch and out-battled Eye of a Jedi to the wire to win by a neck.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/GP022721USA9-EQB.html

4:20 p.m.—$600,000 Grade 3 Razorback Handicap at Oaklawn Park on FS2 and TVG

Multiple graded stakes winner Owendale aims to halt a five-race skid when he faces six challengers in the 1 1/16-miles Razorback. Trained by Brad Cox, Owendale hasn't visited the winner's circle since taking the Blame Stakes at Churchill Downs last May 23 but did finish third last time out in the Grade 1 Clark Stakes on Nov. 27. Among the top challengers the son of Into Mischief is set to face is Mystic Guide, winner of the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes last year and runner-up in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup last October.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/OP022721USA7-EQB.html

4:29 p.m.—$125,000 Grade 3 Honey Fox Stakes at Gulfstream Park on FS2 and TVG

Grade 1 winner Got Stormy will begin her fifth and final season of racing Saturday in the one-mile Honey Fox for fillies and mares 4 and up. Got Stormy will be returning to Gulfstream for the first time since winning an optional claiming allowance in March 2019. It is where the daughter of Grade 3 turf-winning mare Malabar Gold broke her maiden in her third lifetime start in February 2018. Given a freshening following her fifth-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint on Nov. 7, Get Stormy joined trainer Mark Casse's string at Palm Meadows, where she has breezed five times since mid-January.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/GP022721USA11-EQB.html

5:04 p.m.—$200,000 Grade 2 Davona Dale Stakes at Gulfstream Park on FS2 and TVG

Gary Barber, Wachtel Stable and Swilcan Stable's Vequist, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2020, is set to launch her highly anticipated sophomore season against 11 rivals in Saturday's Davona Dale. Vequist, the 7-5 favorite in the Davona Dale, was the first champion for her trainer, Parx-based veteran Robert E. 'Butch' Reid Jr., who is approaching his 800th victory in a career that began in 1985. Vequist will be cutting back for her first race since a two-length victory in the 1 1/16-mile Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Nov. 6 at Keeneland, a span of 114 days.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/GP022721USA12-EQB.html

5:36 p.m.—$125,000 Grade 3 The Very One Stakes at Gulfstream Park on FS2 and TVG

Heavenly Curlin, already a graded stakes winner on Woodbine's synthetic surface, will have another test on grass Saturday in the The Very One Stakes. Though her pedigree suggests that she ought to fancy turf, Gary Barber and John Oxley's 4-year-old filly, a $625,000 yearling purchase, is winless in her two tries on the surface, both at Gulfstream. In her most recent start, she was fifth in the Grade 3, 1 ½ miles La Prevayonte on Jan. 23. She will cut back in distance in The Very One to 1 3/16-miles.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/GP022721USA13-EQB.html

5:58 p.m.—$750,000 Grade 3 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park on FS2 and TVG

Godolphin's unbeaten homebred Essential Quality will be making his first start since clinching an Eclipse Award as the country's champion 2-year-old male in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile when he heads up the field for the Southwest Stakes, which offers 10 qualifying points to the winner on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. Essential Quality earned his Eclipse Award after winning the Grade 1 Breeders' Futurity Oct. 3 at Keeneland and the Breeders' Cup Juvenile there on Nov. 6. The son of Tapit will break from the rail in the 1 1/16-mile race. The Southwest and Bayakoa were originally scheduled to be run Feb. 15 before being postponed twice because of severe winter weather.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/OP022721USA10-EQB.html

6:10 p.m.—$300,000 Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park on FS2 and TVG

Courtlandt Farms' Greatest Honour, already a prime prospect on the strength of his dominating victory in the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes, will take a significant step along the Road to the Triple Crown in Saturday's Fountain of Youth, which distributes Kentucky Derby qualifying points on a 50-20-10-5 scale to the top four finishers. Greatest Honour, who broke his maiden in his fourth career start Dec. 26 at Gulfstream, rallied from seventh in a field of nine to draw away by 5 ¾ lengths under Jose Ortiz in the 1 1/16-miles Holy Bull. The son of Tapit has shown trainer Shug McGaughey all the signs that he has moved forward in his training at Payson Park since his winning stakes debut.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/GP022721USA14-EQB.html

Sunday, Feb. 28

6:11 p.m.—$250,000 Grade 3 Bayakoa Stakes at Oaklawn Park on FS1 and TVG

Two-time Eclipse Award champion Monomoy Girl will be making her first start since winning the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff when she begins her 6-year-old season as the heavy favorite in the Bayakoa Stakes. A winner of 13 of 15 career starts, Monomoy Girl was an Eclipse Award winner for champion 3-year-old filly in 2018 and captured champion older dirt female honors in 2020 after missing all of her 4-year-old season due to illness and injury. She drew the outside post 6 for the 1 1/16-mile Bayakoa, a major local prep for the $1 million, Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap on April 17.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/OP022821USA9-EQB.html

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