Ortiz Jr., Pletcher Lead Gulfstream Standings

  

Heading into Wednesday's races, Irad Ortiz Jr. and Luis Saez are in their accustomed one-two spots in the jockey standings in Gulfstream Park's championship meet.

First post for Wednesday is 1:10 p.m. for a ten-race card.

Ortiz leads with 88 wins and Saez is second with 70. Ortiz is seeking his third straight title in Gulfstream's December through March meet.

In the 2019-2020 meet, Ortiz had 115 wins and Saez had 113 wins. The margin was just one victory in 2018-2019, with Ortiz beating Saez 135-134. 

Wednesday is the 55rh day of Gulfstream's 86-day meet.

Paco Lopez is third with riding wins with 62, followed by Tyler Gaffalione with 58 and Emisael Jaramillo with 56.

On Wednesday, Ortiz has mounts in nine races and Saez has mounts in six races.

Defending champion Todd Pletcher leads the trainer standings with 42 wins.

Saffie Joseph Jr. is second with 35 wins and Mike Maker is third with 29.

GP Sprint Winners

Leinster and Mischevious Alex, both 2-5 favorites, were the winners in  Gulfstream's two Grade 3 stakes on Saturday Feb. 13.

Leinster  caught High Crime in the final strides and  won by a neck in the $100,000 Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint at five furlongs for 4-YO  and up.

With Luis Saez riding, Leinster won in 55.29 seconds on the course listed as Good following morning rain.  Julien Leparoux rode High Crime for trainer Darrin Miller.

It was the first race for Leinster sincc last Nov. 7 when he finished third in the Breeders'  Cup Turf Sprint (Grade 1) at Keeneland.

Trainer George "Rusty" Arnold said he expects that Leinster's next race will be either the El Quoz (Grade 1) on the Dubai World Cup undercard on March 28 or the Shakertown at Keeneland on April 3.

Mischevious Alex beat Frosted Grace by 3 1/4 lengths in the $100,000  Gulfstream Park Sprint, at six furlongs on dirt.

The field was reduced to four because of three scratches.

Mischevious Alex won in 1:09.55 on the track listed as Fast.

Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said he expects that Mischevious Alex will race next in the Golden Shaheen (Grade 1) in  Dubai or the Carter (Grade 1) at Aqueduct on April 3.

Royal Delta on Saturday

Gulfstream will draw entries on Wednesday afternoon for Saturday's $100,000 Royal Delta (Grade 3) at 1 1/16 miles on dirt  for fillies and mares 3-YO and up.

Gulfstream officials expect that Eres Tu and Mrs. Danvers will be among the entrants.

Eres Tu,  a 5-year-old daughter of Malibu Moon, won all three of her races last year for trainer Arnaud Delacour.  She is coming off a win in the Allaire DuPont Stakes (Grade 3) at 1 1/8 miles on dirt at Laurel Park on Dec. 27.

The Royal Delta would be the first race for Mrs. Danvers since Nov. 26. On that day, the Shug McGaughey trainee won by 6 1/4 lengths in the Comely Stakes (Grade 3) at 1 1/8 miles on dirt at Aqueduct.

The Royal Delta is the only stakes race on Gulfstream's Saturday Feb. 20 card.

Gulfstream will have nine graded stakes races on its Feb. 27 Fountain of Youth day card.

The featured Fountain of Youth (Grade 2) is 1 1/16 miles on dirt for 3-YOs.

It is a prep for the Florida Derby (Grade 1) at 1 1/8 miles on dirt at Gulfstream on Feb. 27 and for the Kentucky Derby (Grade 1) at 1 1/4 miles at Churchill Downs in Louisville on May 1.

The Fountain of Youth is a second round points qualifying race for the Kentucky Derby. The first through fourth place finishers will receive 50, 20, 10 and five points respectively.

The Fountain of Youth will probably include Greatest Honour and Drain the Clock.

On Jan. 30, Greatest Honour won the 1 1/16 mile Holy Bull (Great 3) at Gulfstream.  He earned ten points in  that first round Kentucky Derby qualifying points race.

Also on Jan. 30, Drain the Clock won the seven-furlong Swale (Grade 3) at Gulfstream. The Fountain of Youth would be his first race longer than seven furlongs and first Kentucky Derby points race.