Domino Vitali Shortens Up for $100,000 Sheer Drama

7F Prep for G3 Princess Rooney Draws Solid Field of Eight

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – She could have run once, maybe twice, since making her stakes debut in mid-May. Instead, through planning and circumstance, AMO Racing USA’s Domino Vitali will be a fresh horse when she returns against the likes of stakes-winning stablemates Kerry’s Kiss and Indy Bay and Chilean Group 1 winner Bombacha Veloz in Saturday’s $100,000 Sheer Drama Handicap at Gulfstream Park.

The Sheer Drama for fillies and mares 3 and up sprinting seven furlongs on the main track, local prep for next month’s $250,000 Princess Rooney (G3), is the headliner as the Royal Palm Meet resumes with a 10-race program starting at 12:20 p.m.

Domino Vitali arrived Monday in South Florida from trainer Jorge Delgado’s summer string at Monmouth Park, where she most recently ran second as the favorite in the one-mile, 70-yard Serena’s Song May 16, just her fourth start and first around two turns. The bay daughter of late champion Uncle Mo led the way through six furlongs despite having to steady early, then held onto the place by a neck.

From there the connections initially had both the June 20 Lady’s Secret and July 18 Molly Pitcher (G3) in their sights, each going 1 1/16 miles at Monmouth, but wound up in neither. After bypassing the Lady’s Secret, they wound up doing the same when two-time Grade 1-winning millionaire Splendora landed in the Molly Pitcher, which she won by 5 ½ lengths.

“When [Domino Vitali] ran here at Monmouth, I was actually expecting a better result for sure that day,” Delgado said. “We were like, do we go in the Lady’s Secret before the Molly Pitcher or do we go to the Molly Pitcher? We decided to skip the Lady’s Secret and go for the Molly Pitcher, then they put Splendora in the Molly Pitcher so we go somewhere else.

“We entered her for main track only at Saratoga and she didn’t get in that day. It rained, but the race didn’t get rained off [the turf],”he added. “We were looking at our options. The Princess Rooney is at Gulfstream and it makes sense to shorten her up in distance and try and see what happens.”

The seven-furlong Princess Rooney for fillies and mares 3 and up, a ‘Win and You’re In’ qualifier for the Oct. 31 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) at Keeneland, will be run Sept. 12.

Out of the mare West Coast Chick, a Grade 3-placed sprinter for Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito that broke her maiden in 2014 at Gulfstream, Domino Vitali, a $600,000 purchase, debuted last fall with a six-length romp at Tampa Bay Downs. Her next two starts came during Gulfstream’s Championship Meet, optional claimers going a one-turn mile.

On Jan. 8 she pressed the pace for a half-mile before taking over into the stretch and ultimately being overtaken late to finish second under jockey David Egan. She and Egan came back Feb. 27 to overcome a tardy break and rate behind horses before erupting to a six-length romp as the favorite and heading north.

“She likes Gulfstream and she’s been maturing since the last race. She’s changed quite a bit and I do believe she’s a better filly than the last time she ran,” Delgado said. “Her mother ran that kind of distance, and she’s kind of explosive from the gate. The second time she ran it was difficult for Egan to handle her and then in the last sixteenth, she kind of got a little tired.”

Jose Morelos is named to ride Domino Vitali from Post 3 in a field of eight at 121 pounds, four fewer than Saffie Joseph Jr.-trained topweight Indy Bay.

“We are actually very positive about the race and the way she’s been training,” Delgado said. “In numbers it might not make much sense when you see her and Saffie’s horse, but I do believe that on a good day that she can beat anybody.

“The last race was her first time going two turns and she got tired at the end,” he added. “I think with the seven furlongs, if the jockey is able to control her speed a little bit, she’s going to have enough in the end to get it done.”

Joseph is represented by the pair of Indy Bay and Kerry’s Kiss. At this time last year Agave Racing Stable and Miller Racing’s Indy Bay (Post 6, Micah Husbands) won the seven-furlong Charles Town Oaks (G2) and has one win in six subsequent starts – a 7 ¾-length romp at the course and distance May 24.

In her last start, Indy Bay ran second to Epic Horses, BAG Racing Stables and The White House Stables’ Kerry’s Kiss (Post 5, Edwin Gonzalez, 124) in Gulfstream’s 6 ½-furlong Musical Romance Handicap June 27. It was the second straight win and first for Kerry’s Kiss since being purchased privately out of a string of two-turn starts at Oaklawn Park.

Patricio Valdviar’s Bombacha Veloz is entered to make her North American and 2026 debut in the Sheer Drama, having gone unraced since the 1 ¼-mile Alberto Solari Magnasco (G1) Nov. 1 in her native Chile. Four of her five wins from nine career starts have come in group stakes led by the one-mile Mil Guineas (G1) last August.

Mark Knight’s Just a Philly (Post 2, Miguel Vasquez, 120) had a modest two-race win streak snapped when third in the Musical Romance, her 19th lifetime start. She returns to a distance where she ran three times last winter at Gulfstream and has a 2-2-2 record from eight tries. She has two wins, two seconds and a third since being claimed out of a Feb. 20 win for $12,500 by trainer Herbert Miller.

“She’s been doing good since I claimed her. She’s been nothing but awesome,” Miller said. “If you look at her career she’s very versatile. She can go from six to six and a half [furlongs], seven-eighths. She’s proven that she can go a mile. She just does everything right.”

Completing the field are Poiema (Post 1, Leonel Reyes, 120), Permian Basin (Post 7, Diego Herrera, 116) and Girvin Star (Post 8, Yolber Torres, 117).

Harold Queen’s Florida homebred Sheer Drama, trained by David Fawkes, finished third or better in 17 of 24 career starts with seven wins and nearly $1.7 million in purse earnings. She won stakes in Maryland, Delaware, Florida, New York and Kentucky including the 2015 Delaware Handicap (G1) and Personal Ensign (G1) and 2016 Madison (G1). The half-sister to Eclipse Award-winning sprinter Big Drama was Florida’s champion older female and Horse of the Year in 2015.