Coppola the Best in $140,000 Janus

Sunday’s Tropical Turf Pick 3 Features 2-Year-Old Maidens
Rainbow 6 Hit for $244,071

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Coppola, a 5-year-old son of Into Mischief who had won two previous stakes on Gulfstream Park’s turf course, broke on top and never relinquished the lead to win Saturday’s $140,000 Janus.

Trained by Dale Romans and owned by Hammer Time Stable LLC and Sport of Kings Racing Partners, LLC, Coppola covered a firm five-furlong turf course in :54.60 while. Coppola won last winter’s Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint and Silks Run during the Championship Meet. He finished fourth in last year’s Janus and fourth in the Twin Spires Turf Sprint (G2) and Jaipur (G1).

"I was very impressed with him. The second we stepped on the track he was moving great,” Gaffalione said. “He broke sharp, put me where I needed to be and he put it away early. That was a fantastic race for him today.

“Breaking from the outside post, we obviously had to be aggressive. I didn't know if we could clear everybody. But the way he broke, I just let him do his thing and try to stay out of his way. I was able to put my hands down going into the turn, he took a nice deep breath, kind of cruised around there on his own -- around the turn -- and when I called on him reaching the eighth pole, he found another gear.”

Coppola returned $9.80.

Two Maiden Special Weights Highlight Sunday’s Tropical Turf Pick 3

Two maiden special weight events for 2-year-old fillies will highlight Sunday’s Tropical Turf Pick 3.

The $3 wager, with a 15-percent takeout, starts in Race 5 with a dozen fillies going 1 1/16 mile. Reputation, trained by Gustavo Delgado, is a $450,000 Bolt d’Oro making his turf debut. Kamari is a $425,000 daughter of Nyquist also making her turf debut. Race 7 has a field of 11 3-year-olds and up going a mile while the Tropical Turf Pick 3 concludes with Race 10, a 1 1/16 mile even that drew a dozen including Unlimited Spending, a Japanese-bred making her debut for Repole Stable and trainer Todd Pletcher.

Saturday’s ninth race an allowance optional claimer at six furlongs, marks the return of Born Noble, a 3-year-old colt who broke his maiden impressively in his debut. He hasn’t run since finishing second Feb. 3 in a mile allowance race. Pletcher trains.

NOTE: The 20-cent Rainbow 6 was hit Saturday for $244,000. The winning numbers were 6-5-11-7-4-7. The Rainbow 6 carryover pool is only paid out when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 70 percent of that day’s pool goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners, while 30 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.