G2-Placed My Miss Mo Returns in Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2)

De Paz Hopes Arya Stark Takes Leading Role in Orchid (G3)
Blinkers On for G2-Placed Just Singing in Gulfstream Park Oaks
Learntodiscover Set to Make U.S. Debut in $175,000 Cutler Bay
G2-Placed My Miss Mo Returns in Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2)

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL - Averill Racing, Mathis Stables and Tristan de Meric’s My Miss Mo, a distant but determined second in the Davona Dale (G2) four weeks ago, will look to turn the tables when she meets winner She Be Smooth again in Saturday’s $275,000 Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2) presented by City National Bank.

The 1 1/16-mile Oaks for 3-year-old fillies offers 200 qualifying points for the May 1 Kentucky Oaks (G1) to the top five finishers on a 100-50-25-15-10 basis. My Miss Mo earned 25 points in the Davona Dale, placing her in a three-way tie for 18th on the list. The Kentucky Oaks is limited to a maximum of 14 starters with four also-eligibles.

My Miss Mo, bred in Florida by Valerie Mastromonaco, de Meric and Uncle Mo Syndicate, began her career at Gulfstream with back-to-back state-bred sprints last fall. After running second by a nose in debut going six furlongs, she crushed her rivals by 12 lengths when stretch out to seven-eighths. The third-place finisher that day, Winplaceandshow, has come back to win two of her next three starts.

Championship Meet leading trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. stepped My Miss Mo up to stakes company for her juvenile finale, the six-furlong Sandpiper in December at Tampa Bay Downs, never finding herself in contention while finished fourth, beaten 6 ¾ lengths.

Next up was the one-mile Davona Dale Feb. 28, where My Miss Mo pressed a strong pace to the top of the stretch but was no match for late-running She Be Smooth, who returns in the Gulfstream Oaks as the 7-5 program favorite. My Miss Mo was a half-length better than third-place finisher On Time Girl, winner of the Jan. 31 Forward Gal (G3).

“She’d kind of been disappointing up to that stage. She’s kind of trained better than she’s run,” Joseph said. “I think the distance definitely helps her and we’re hopeful that two turns is going to help her more. If two turns does help her more and we’re right about that, then she’s going to be one of the legit contenders.”

Fourth choice on the morning line in a field of seven at odds of 5-1, My Miss Mo will break from Post 5 with Tyler Gaffalione up.

Joseph will also send out Shining Stables’ Nasti Z (Post 3, 30-1), a Florida-bred daughter of Brethren owned by his wife, Morgan. In her lone start, Nasti Z was a two-length maiden claiming winner sprinting 5 ½ furlongs Feb. 21 while in for a $35,000 tag. Micah Husbands has the riding assignment.

“She’s a horse that has promise,” Joseph said. “She’s obviously going from 5 ½ [furlongs] to a mile and a sixteenth but she’s a filly that I think could be a stakes horse down the line.Whether it’s too soon or not we’ll find out. You wouldn’t say it’s the toughest Oaks so with reasonable improvement the distance does help. It’s not out of the question that she could win.”

De Paz Hopes Arya Stark Takes Leading Role in Orchid (G3)

Horacio De Paz didn’t watch 59-time Primetime Emmy Award-winning fantasy series Game of Thrones during its original eight-year network run which ended in 2019, nor has the trainer tuned in during its enduring streaming presence.

De Paz, however, is quite familiar with Arya Stark. No, not GOT’s unlikely free-spirited heroine, but the 6-year-old mare that will make her second straight graded-stakes appearance in Saturday’s $175,000 Orchid (G3) at Gulfstream Park.

“Now I am a Game of Thrones fan because everybody keeps mentioning it,” De Paz said. “I got this filly and people are like, ‘Arya Stark!’ I’m like the only person that hasn’t watched it yet. Everybody tells me, ‘It’s a good show, you’ve got to watch it.’ So, at some point I will.”

Argentinian Arya Stark, the horse, made her first seven starts where she was bred, all on dirt, capped by the Ramon Biaus (G2) against older horses in November 2024 before coming to the U.S. She raced five times for trainer Ignacio ‘Nacho’ Correas IV, De Paz’s former mentor in Maryland who retired last fall.

‘He’s kind of directed me. Obviously, he’s been very successful with those imports. The more time they spend here after they acclimate into our programs, the better they get,” De Paz said. “He said the first year is just kind of getting used to the racing and then the second year they’re around they start to blossom and really take off, and most of them showing the form they showed over there here in the states.”

Haymarket Farm’s Arya Stark won twice for Correas, both at a distance of ground on the turf, prior to joining De Paz. She has since run second twice behind Speed Shopper, in the 1 ¼-mile Florence on Turfway Park’s synthetic surface and the 1 ½-mile Christophe Clement (G3) Jan. 24 as a 15-1 longshot over the Gulfstream turf.

“We were big odds. The owner is from Kentucky and when I sent him the overnight he said, ‘Tall order,’” De Paz said. “I said she was doing really good and the distance, she should like it. I told [jockey Ricardo] Santana [Jr.] to just kind of ride your race, she’s an honest filly. I really thought we were going to steal it. At the top of the lane I thought she was going to hold off that other filly but Speed Shopper was right there once again. She rode the trip right behind us and just came out and ran her down.”

Hall of Famer Joel Rosario has the call from the rail on Arya Stark, rated 8-1 on the morning line against fellow graded winners Just Basking, Sultana, Dona Clota and Bellezza. De Paz said he wouldn’t rule out a return to dirt at some point.

“The filly’s got a heck of a cardio. It seems like she runs well on three surfaces,” De Paz said. “The dirt races, like I explained to the owner, they’re smaller fields. It’s a smaller group of horses. On the turf going long, you’re going to have the Europeans so it’s going to be a little bit bigger pool to try to beat. Going long on the dirt, those fields thin down quite a bit. Her style, for now at least, she’s been breaking and sits close to the pace so it kind of sets up a little bit for dirt racing.

“After this we’ll kind of regroup and see where we go. I think she’s a really talented mare,” he added. “She’s done very well and we’ve kept her down there. She’s a delight to train and everybody loves her. She’s very easy on herself, so we’re expecting hopefully some big things for her.”

Blinkers On for Just Singing in the Gulfstream Park Oaks

Holding a significant edge in two-turn experience over her rivals, Whisper Hill Farm’s twice Grade 2-placed Just Singing will have a change of equipment for her next start in Saturday’s $275,000 Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2) presented by City National Bank.

After wearing blinkers in each of her last two works at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, Just Singing will have them on for the first time in a race in the 1 1/16-mile Oaks for 3-year-old fillies.

“We put the blinkers on and the last two works have been really good. The last one was exceptional,” trainer Kent Sweezey said. “We just kind of wanted to experiment with things. She’s in a real good groove at Palm Meadows. If there’s ever a time and place to play with some equipment and try some different things, it’s Palm Meadows. It’s a nice, big, quiet track and it’s the best place to train. Smaller places like Churchill and New York, you don’t get the long walks home. There’s lots of things that are a plus.”

Sweeney said the decision to try blinkers came after she kicked off her sophomore season in the Rachel Alexandra (G2) Feb. 14 at Fair Grounds, where she ran third to previously undefeated Bella Ballerina for the second straight race following the Nov. 29 Golden Rod (G2).

“She doesn’t put much into her training in the morning. You can see she’ll work fast sometimes and then other times she works slow, not necessarily by design. She just gets lost out there,” he said. “We just put them on her one day before she breezed and the rider said she grabbed the bit really well and kind of finished her gallops.”

Just Singing has made each of her last three starts around two turns, preceding her stakes runs with a 3 ¼-length maiden triumph last fall in her second start after running fourth in debut going one mile. The only Oaks rivals with two-turn experience are Prom Queen, who won a Feb. 12 maiden at Gulfstream, and Haute Diva, sixth in the Alcibiades (G1) last fall at Keeneland.

“That’s all she wants to do,” Sweezey said. “When we ran her first time out she got excluded from a six-furlong race and they made it a one-turn mile. We were just looking to get a race into her. We were not looking to win first time out or anything, and she actually ran really, really good. We knew stretching her out was going to be her game. Not many fillies can do that.”

The Oaks offers 200 qualifying points for the May 1 Kentucky Oaks (G1) to the top five finishers on a 100-50-25-15-10 basis. Just Singing ranks 26th on the list with 18 points and will break from Post 4 of nine under Hall of Famer John Velazquez, rated fourth on the morning line at 9-2.

“We got a couple points now but we need some more to make the starting gate,” Sweezey said.

Learntodiscover Set to Make U.S. Debut in $175,000 Cutler Bay

In his first North American start, Irish Group 3-placed Learntodiscover will face stablemate Immotalised, riding a two-race win streak over the course, in Saturday’s $175,000 Cutler Bay for 3-year-olds going 7 ½ furlongs on the Gulfstream Park turf.

Mark Dobbin’s Learntodiscover, bred in England, had one win and two thirds in four starts last year in Ireland, capped by a third over a course rated good in the six-furlong Round Tower (G3) at The Curragh. Racing with blinkers and as a gelding for the first time, he is the 9-5 program favorite from Post 5 of eight with jockey Flavien Prat.

Feld Family Racing and Starry Night Racing’s Immortalised, also trained by Brendan Walsh, was bred in France but made all three of his starts in the U.S. He raced once at 2, finishing sixth in a maiden event on the Ellis Park turf, graduated by a neck in a one-mile maiden optional claimer Jan. 2 and returned to beat winners in a 7 ½-furlong optional claiming allowance on the grass, both on the grass at Gulfstream.

Hall of Famer John Velazquez will ride Immortalised from Post 3. They are the 3-1 second choice on the morning line.

“Immortalized won a maiden 50 at the start of the meet and then he won the a-other-than the last start. He’s a nice horse,” Walsh said. “Learntodiscover was Grade 3-placed in Ireland last year, so he’s a pretty smart horse.”

Blinging It Back (Post 3, 12-1) began his career on the dirt, running second in the Tremont and Sanford (G3) last summer at Saratoga. Unraced since Oct. 5, he broke his maiden first time on turf and will race Saturday as a gelding for the first time.

Also entered are stakes-placed Knoty Knicks (Post 1, 4-1); Sheriff Bart (Post 4, 9-2), a last out winner at the course and distance Feb. 22; Behold the King (Post 6, 8-1), winner of Gulfstream’s Nov. 1 going a mile on the turf; Blind River (Post 7, 20-1), a maiden graduate at Gulfstream going a mile on grass Feb. 27; and Ababajoni (Post 8, 15-1), exiting a one-mile turf allowance win against Florida-breds March 6.