Dunmore Beach Makes Move to Dirt for $175,000 Cash Run

Dancing N Dixie Debuts for New Connections in $100,000 Key West

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Following three solid performances on the synthetic, including an impressive maiden triumph last time out, Gainesway Stable and Andrew Rosen’s Dunmore Beach will try both dirt and stakes company for the first time in Thursday’s $175,000 Cash Run at Gulfstream Park.

Contested at a one-turn mile for newly turned 3-year-old fillies, the Cash Run is the first of three stakes worth $450,000 in purses on a special 10-race New Year’s Day holiday program that begins at 12:20 p.m.

Dunmore Beach is a homebred daughter of 2009 Florida Derby (G1) winner Quality Road that has done all her running at Woodbine, where Canadian Hall of Fame trainer Josie Carroll is based outside of winter.

Out of the El Padrino mare Pink Caddy, herself a stakes winner on the dirt at 2 and 3, Dunmore Beach didn’t debut until Sept. 20 in a six-furlong maiden special weight sprint where she rallied from last to be second behind subsequent dual stakes winner Piper’s Gift, only to be disqualified to eighth for interference near the three-sixteenths pole.

Dunmore Beach came back to be third in a similar spot sprinting 6 ½ furlongs Oct. 18, then broke through with a three-length score going 1 1/16 miles Nov. 29.

“I thought she was pretty impressive in that race. We had been looking forward to running her two turns and she certainly lived up to our expectations,” Carroll said. “We thought she was a really promising filly. She had a little bad luck her first couple of starts, got in some trouble and got DQ’d. Then when we ran her two turns, she was pretty dominant.”

Dunmore Beach has had one breeze over the main track at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, since making the move south, going a half-mle in 49.xx seconds Dec. 20. Carroll isn’t worried about the cutback to one turn.

“I think her shorter races were respectable, also, so we’re not too concerned about it,” she said. “She seems to have taken well to the dirt in her training. It’ll be her first time running on it, but the stake seemed like it was coming up a short field so we thought it was worth going in there.”

Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez has the mount from Post 4 in a field of seven. They are rated as second choice on the morning line at 3-1.

The 8-5 program favorite is Final Furlong Farm and Madaket Stables’ Secane, a 7 ¾-length winner of her unveiling Aug. 15 sprinting seven furlongs over Gulfstream’s main track for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. In her only other start, she pressed the pace before finishing third as the favorite, beaten 4 ¾ lengths, in the one-mile Tempted Nov. 6 at Aqueduct. Irad Ortiz Jr. rides from outermost Post 7.

Blazing Meadows Farm’s Blazing Brat (Post 3, 6-1), owned and trained by Tim Hamm, has an experience edge over both horses with a win, two seconds and a third from five starts dating back to July 4. Like Dunmore Beach the first three came on synthetic, all at Presque Isle Downs, before a failed try over its turf course Sept. 7 in the 6 ½-furlong Untapable.

From there Hamm moved Blazing Brat to the dirt where she rallied to be second at odds of 24-1 in the six-furlong Sandpiper Dec. 6 at Tampa Bay Downs. Edgard Zayas has the riding assignment.

“I wanted to try her on dirt,” Hamm said. “We had her up at Presque Isle this summer so that’s why she was on the synthetic. I really didn’t think her pedigree was synthetic, anyhow, but we were like, ‘Let’s try it.’ I was anxious to get her on the dirt at some point. I thought it was the logical move. They’re all tough, but [the Sandpiper] came up OK so we figured we’d try it.

“First dirt race I thought she handled it well. Maybe she prefers dirt over the other surfaces. She’d been on the synthetic and tried the turf once, but it could be she likes the dirt a little better. She was coming on toward the end of the race and galloped out good, so we thought maybe the extra distance here helps her a little, as well,” he added. “This looks like a wide-open race. It’s somewhat of a short field, not 12 or 13 horses in it, so if you’re going to try to stretch out to a one-turn mile it seems like a logical spot to give it a shot.”

Vita Mia and Haute Diva are other horses with stakes experience. Haute Diva (Post 2, 8-1), second in each of her three Gulfstream dirt races including a one-mile maiden special weight Sept. 6, ran sixth in the 1 1/16-mile Alcibiades (G1) Oct. 3 at Keeneland. Vita Mia (Post 1, 6-1) was most recently sixth in the Golden Rod (G2) going two turns Nov. 29 at Churchill Downs after finishing second in the Hallandale Beach on dirt and Our Dear Peggy on turf, each going a mile, this fall at Gulfstream.

Completing the field are Nycon (Post 5, 6-1) and Secane’s Joseph-trained stablemate Jetty’s Home (Post 6, 6-1).

Cash Run won the 1999 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) at Gulfstream Park for late Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, and returned the following year to win the Davona Dale (G2) and Bonnie Miss (G2), the latter now contested as the Gulfstream Park Oaks.

Dancing N Dixie Debuts for New Connections in $100,000 Key West

Michael and Jules Iavarone and TCC Stables’ Dancing N Dixie, a stakes winner on both the turf and synthetic that was purchased at auction in November, looks to pay quick dividends for her new connections when she faces eight rivals in Saturday’s $100,000 Key West overnight handicap at Gulfstream Park.

The Key West for fillies and mares 4 and up going 1 1/8 miles on the all-weather Tapeta course, is the second of three stakes on a New Year’s Day holiday card preceded by the $175,000 Cash Run for 3-year-old fillies on dirt and followed by the $175,000 Dania Beach for 3-year-olds on the grass.

Dancing N Dixie made 19 starts from ages 2 to 4 for Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse, with three wins, one second, five thirds and $418,830 in purse earnings. She captured the 2023 Our Dear Peggy going a mile and 70 yards on the Gulfstream Tapeta and was an upset winner of the one-mile Tepin in July 2024 over the Churchill Downs turf.

By multimillionaire Neolithic, who had two wins and a third in the 2017 Pegasus World Cup (G1) at Gulfstream, 5-year-old Dancing N Dixie fetched $200,000 at Keeneland’s November Breeding Stock sale. She placed five times in graded-stakes, mostly recently running third by a length in the 1 ¼-mile Maple Leaf (G2) Nov. 8 on Woodbine’s synthetic.

Favored at 5-2 on the morning line, Dancing N Dixie will break from Post 2 with jockey Edgard Zayas aboard.

Jessica Slack Jell’s Newstead Stable and trainer Graham Motion, winners of the Dec. 24 Via Borghese at Gulfstream with No Show Sammy Jo, chase similar success with 6-year-old mare For Flying (Post 6, 7-2). A Group 1 winner that also placed twice in Group 1 company in her native Brazil, For Flying placed twice in 1 1/16-mile synthetic stakes at Woodbine – finishing second in the Belle Mahone (G3) and third in the Ontario Matron (G3) last spring and fall – she also exits the Maple Leaf where she ran fifth.

Royalight Racing’s 6-year-old Charlie’s Wish (Post 3, 5-1) is the richest horse in the field with a bankroll of $454,099 from 25 starts, running third or better 18 times including six wins. Among her victories are the 2023 Azalea sprinting seven furlongs on dirt, 2024 Distaff Turf going 1 1/16 miles and 2024 Ginger Punch, also at 1 1/16 miles on the Gulfstream Tapeta.

Design (Post 1, 12-1), Show Off (Post 4, 20-1), Oshala (Post 5, 15-1), Mama Bella (Post 7, 4-1), Fantasy Performer (Post 8, 8-1) and Lady Firefoot (Post 9, 8-1) are also entered.