Miss Mary Nell Stretches Back Out for $100,000 Powder Break

Filly & Mare Turf Stakes Headlines Saturday’s 11-Race Program

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Palm Beach Racing’s 4-year-old Florida homebred Miss Mary Nell, beaten a neck when second to Turino two starts back, will have the benefit of more distance as she attempts to avenge that result in Saturday’s $100,000 Powder Break at Gulfstream Park.

The Powder Break for fillies and mares 3 and up, scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the grass, is the headliner as live racing resumes with a three-day weekend punctuated by first of eight consecutive Monday programs to close the Royal Palm Meet.

Post time for the first of 11 races is 12:20 p.m.

By Girvin, a Grade 1 winner on dirt, Miss Mary Nell is out of the mare Tempest’s Flash, who earned her lone win on the grass and ran fourth in the 2015 Powder Break. Miss Mary Nell is a half-sister to 3-year-old colt Ababajoni, runner-up in the 7 ½-furlong Cutler Bay March 28 on the Gulfstream turf.

Though she has fared better on the all-weather Tapeta thus far in her career, with five wins, one second and two thirds from 11 starts, Miss Mary Nell was resurgent on the grass this spring. She was third by less than a length to multiple stakes winner Souper Zonda in the FHBPA Filly & Mare Turf April 25, then was unable to hold off favored Turino’s rally but stayed up for second in the May 16 Monroe – both contested at a two-turn mile.

Miss Mary Nell is winless in three turf tries at the Powder Break distance but was second in last summer’s Martha Washington at odds of 14-1 behind another multiple stakes winner, Starship Impulsive. Sent off at 24-1, she won the Jan. 24 South Beach overnight handicap going a mile and 70 yards over the Tapeta on the Pegasus World Cup Day program.

“Last year I didn’t think she really liked the turf,” trainer Carlos David said. “She was running better on Tapeta and then it just kind of clicked and she started running again on the grass. I’m happy she’s getting that turf form again.”

Miss Mary Nell was back on Tapeta for the Little Miss Holly overnight handicap sprinting 5 ½ furlongs June 14, trailing the field early on before making a late run through traffic to be fourth, beaten three lengths.

“I feel good about her. She’s going to face some of the same fillies that she has been facing. I put her in the sprint race last time because I didn’t want to give her 45, 50 days between races. Giving her a short race in between, it was kind of like a breeze,” David said.

“I knew she wasn’t to win that. She doesn’t have the speed to go to the lead going short, but she ran pretty good. Even though she couldn’t keep up, she was closing at the end,” he added. “That kept her in form and now we’re looking forward to this race going long again. She’s training good and I think she’ll run good.”

Leonel Reyes, who has a win, two seconds and a third in four tries aboard Miss Mary Nell, rides back from Post 3 in a field of 10. Reyes won six races over the Fourth of July holiday weekend including a hat trick July 3.

Carrie Brogden and Circle N Thoroughbreds’ Turino (Post 8, Rasheed Hughes) takes a two-race win streak into the Powder Break, having won an optional claimer at the course and distance April 18 after losing by a nose in a similar spot Jan. 24 to open her 5-year-old season. She has been favored in five of her seven starts since joining Royal Palm Meet leading trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. last summer including a maiden win on the Tapeta in June.

Turino will be joined by four stablemates in the Powder Break – Little Jamie (Post 1, Nik Juarez), third in the Monroe in her first start for Joseph; City Minute (Post 2, Micah Husbands), most recently second in a one-mile optional claimer May 16 after winning a state-bred allowance in her prior start, both on grass; and Hello Hello Hello (Post 4, Skyler Spanabel) and Make the Boys Wink (Post 5, Rajiv Maragh) in their barn debut.

Blue Boy Racing and Matty Dan Racing Stable’s Vincey Girl (Post 9, Edwin Gonzalez) will be making her 18th career start and first on turf in the Powder Break. The 5-year-old mare is a stakes winner on Gulfstream’s main track, taking last August’s seven-furlong Sheer Drama by 3 ¼ lengths over two-time Grade 3-winning millionaire Haulin Ice.

Trainer Jose D’Angelo said the connections have had grass in the back of their minds for Vincey Girl, who does her best running from off the pace, as far back as 2023. While her sire, Race Day, was a multiple graded-stakes winner on dirt, her dam, Gracious, was a winner on Tapeta.

“We tried one time working her on the Tapeta when she was a 2-year-old. We always have the thoughts that, with the way that she runs, that the turf can help her a little bit,” D’Angelo said. “I think it is the perfect race to try her and see what happens.”

Vincey Girl has been third or better in 10 of 17 starts, five of them wins. She returns to South Florida after being a well-beaten fifth behind Grade-1 winning millionaire Ways and Means in the Bed o’ Roses (G2) June 4 at Saratoga.

“She’s a very honest horse and she always tries her best when she runs,” D’Angelo said. “I think her perfect distance is between seven furlongs and one mile, but on the grass you can go easier and if they set a fast pace, she can close at the end the way that we want. We’re looking forward to it.”

Laigina (Post 6, Diego Herrera), placed in three Gulfstream turf stakes including the one-mile Honey Ryder May 2 in her most recent start; Calathea (Post 7, Edgar Perez), making her turf debut after having a three-race Tapeta win steak snapped on the main track June 7; and Jan. 1 Key West overnight handicap winner Fantasy Performer (Post 10, Miguel Vasquez) complete the field.

Bred in Florida by Robert Williamson and Farnsworth Farm, Powder Break won 11 of 44 starts from 1983-86. After spending much of her early career in the maiden and claiming ranks, she evolved into an outstanding older mare with wins in the 1985 New York Handicap (G2) at Belmont Park and La Prevoyante Invitational Handicap (G2) at Calder Race Course and Gulfstream’s 1986 Pan American Handicap (G1) against males.