Gulfstream Resumes Thursday; Sire Stakes, Gunnevera On Saturday

Gulfstream Park will resume racing on Thursday with ten races and first post of 1:15 p.m.

The feature eighth race is five furlongs on turf for 3-year-olds and up. It is a $25,000 optional claimer with a $43,000 purse.

The carryover on the Rainbow 6 is $20,089.  It is on races six to eleven.

On Friday, Gulfstream will have nine races with first post at 2:15 p.m.

Three Saturday Stakes
The Saturday card has a special early first post of 12:10 p.m. 

The Saturday attractions are this year’s first two races in the Florida Sire Stakes series and the return of multiple stakes winner Gunnevera.

Entries will be out on Wednesday afternoon.

Gunnevera is one of eight nominees for the $100,000 Tangelo Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on dirt for 3-year-olds.

It would be the first race for Gunnevera since May 20, when he finished fifth in the 1 3/16-mile Preakness (Grade 1) at Pimlico in Baltimore.

Trainer Antonio Sano last month said he hoped to get Gunnevera into a race at Gulfstream before running him Aug. 26 in the Travers (Grade 1) at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Since early July, Gunnevera has had five bullet workouts at Calder (Gulfstream Park West).

In the 1 ¼ mile Travers, Gunnevera would face many of the horses he ran against in races on this year’s Triple Crown trail.

At Gulfstream this year, Gunnevera won the 1 1/16-mile Fountain of Youth (Grade 2). He also finished second in the Holy Bull (Grade 2) and third in the 1 1/8-mile Florida Derby (Grade 1).

Gunnevera, a Kentucky-bred son of Dialed In, finished seventh in the Kentucky Derby (Grade 1) at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., on May 6.

In 2011, Dialed In won the Fountain of Youth and Florida Derby and finished eighth in the Kentucky Derby.

Gunnevera, like his sire, has a late-running style that has made him popular with fans.

He began his career last summer at Gulfstream, and is part of Sano’s year-round stable at Calder.

Gunnevera is especially popular among South Florida fans with connections to Venezuela.

Sano and the principals of Peacock Racing Stables, which owns Gunnevera, are natives of Venezuela.

Amid the intensified political and economic strife in Venezuela, a win by Gunnevera on Saturday would help lift the spirits of many of the Venezuelan nationals who live in South Florida. A win by Gunnevera in the Travers would provide that kind of lift several times over.

 The Sire Stakes races are the $100,000 Desert Vixen for 2-year-old fillies and the $100,000 Dr. Fager for 2-year-old males. 

 Both races are six furlongs on dirt.

The Sire Stakes races are restricted to sons and daughters of Florida-registered stallions that have been nominated for the series by their owners.

 --Jim Freer