Poolside With Slim Kicks Off Season in Honey Fox (G3)

Grade 2 Winner Making 4-Year-Old Debut in Turf Stakes

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Glenn Bromagen II, Patrick Lewis and Sandra Bromagen’s Grade 2 winner Poolside With Slim, unraced since Thanksgiving weekend, will kick off her 4-year-old season where she broke her maiden last winter in Saturday’s $165,000 Honey Fox (G3) at Gulfstream Park.

The 40th running of the Honey Fox for fillies and mares 4 and up scheduled for one mile on the turf is the seventh of nine stakes, eight graded, worth $2.15 million in purses on a blockbuster 14-race program, immediately preceding the $415,000 Coolmore Fountain of Youth (G2) for 3-year-olds.

First race post time is 11:30 a.m.

Poolside With Slim graduated in her second career start last February going 1 1/16 miles on Gulfstream’s all-weather Tapeta course. She has been on the grass since, starting with a fourth-place effort in the Florida Oaks (G3), where she was beaten 1 ¼ lengths.

Bred in Ireland and trained by George ‘Rusty’ Arnold II, Poolside With Slim made her next five starts at the Honey Fox’s one-mile distance, including a popular head decision in the Penn Oaks and a 1 ¼-length triumph in the Valley View (G2) at Keeneland, the latter under international star Frankie Dettori.

“The Grade 2 was by far her best race,” Arnold said. “The Penn Oaks was a nice race, too. It wasn’t graded but it was a good quality group. Then she had a couple of trips that were not ideal for her. They weren’t bad trips, but they weren’t ideal. She got a great trip at Keeneland, a great ride by Frankie, and everything worked out well for her.”

Poolside With Slim cuts back to her favorite distance after closing her sophomore season running third, beaten 1 ¼ lengths, in the 1 1/16-mile Mrs. Revere (G2) Nov. 29. She has breezed six times at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, since Dec. 31 for her return, most recently going four furlongs on the grass in 46.10 seconds Feb. 21 ranking eighth of 59 horses.

“She’s coming into the race very good,” Arnold said. “She’s never run a bad race. She’s run good every time, all against 3-year-olds, so we’re stepping into a tougher group now. Facing older horses makes it a little different, but she’s trained well and ready to start her 4-year-old campaign.”

Dettori, to be based at Gulfstream for the duration of the Championship Meet, is named to ride from Post 4 in a full field of 12.

“I’m optimistic every time I take her over there because she’s never run bad. Even when she gets beat, her effort is there every time,” Arnold said. “She seems to run really good at a mile with a little pace in front of her, and hopefully we’ll get that Saturday.”

Cairo Consort and Life’s an Audible, stablemates who also share an affinity for Gulfstream, will line up for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher. Town and Country Racing’s Cairo Consort has three wins and two thirds in seven career tries over the turf course, all three victories coming in stakes – the 2023 Ginger Brew and Sweetest Chant (G3) and 2024 Sand Springs.

“The one thing we’re looking forward to is that she has three wins at Gulfstream and seems to like the turf course there,” Pletcher said. “She usually runs well fresh also, so hopefully she can work out a good trip.”

Cairo Consort has raced just twice since last winter’s Sand Springs, finishing a troubled seventh in the Distaff Turf Mile (G2) in May and last of 10 in the Nassau (G2) in late June at Woodbine, last time out in her lone start for trainer Kevin Attard.

“Shortly after that she was sold [for $820,000] in the June digital sale,” Pletcher said. “She got a little time after that and she’s come back and trained steadily for this. Hopefully she runs well with the freshening.”

Repole Stable’s Life’s an Audible followed a similar path as Cairo Consort last winter, running second in the Ginger Brew before giving Pletcher a second straight win in the Sweetest Chant. After running second by a neck in the Herecomesthebride (G3) in March, she went unraced before coming back in the Dec. 14 Tropical Park Oaks, finishing ninth. She stayed at two turns for her last start, a victory in an optional claimer Jan. 24 that was rained off the grass to the Tapeta.

“It’s always a guessing game on the synthetic. I thought she won despite not loving it, showed some determination and kept trying,” Pletcher said. “She, too, has a pretty good record at Gulfstream so hopefully she can step up here.”

Jorge Ruiz is named on Cairo Consort from Post 3, while Hall of Famer John Velazquez is named aboard Life’s an Audible from Post 10.

Grade 3 winners Pounce and Tax Implications; 2024 Tropical Park Oaks winner See You Around; Kentucky Downs stakes winner Sister Lou Ann, third in Gulfstream’s 2023 Suwannee River (G3); Ozara, a two-time stakes winner on the Gulfstream turf; In Our Time, a last-out third in the Pegasus Filly & Mare Turf (G2) Jan. 25; Irish Group 3-placed Special Wan; Ready for Shirl and Infinite Diamond are also entered.