Pricey Filly Love Like Lucy Stepping Up in $100,000 Desert Vixen

Rainbow 6 Jackpot Pool Estimated at $100K for Sunshine Meet Opener

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Even before she ran, Love Like Lucy’s $300,000 price tag made her a standout. Her first race did nothing to diminish those expectations.

For her second start, the 2-year-old filly owned by MyRacehorse, Thoroughbred Acquisition Group and Miller Racing will step up into stakes company as a prime contender in Saturday’s $100,000 Desert Vixen at Gulfstream Park.

The Desert Vixen for fillies shares the spotlight on an 11-race program with the $100,000 Dr. Fager, each sprinting six furlongs, to lead off the 44th edition of the $1.2 million Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association Florida Sire Stakes series for juveniles by accredited Florida stallions.

Named for the two-time champion and 1979 Hall of Fame mare that won 13 of 28 career starts from 1972-75, the Desert Vixen comes at the same course and distance as Love Like Lucy’s Aug. 8 unveiling. By Grade 1 winner Win Win Win out of the Majesticperfection mare Just Like Lucy, she was bred in Florida by Brereton C. Jones.

Love Like Lucy fetched $60,000 as a Keeneland yearling last September before MyRacehorse and trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. signed her six-figure ticket at the OBS spring sale of 2-year-olds in training April 18. She was the last horse to go through the ring during the four-day auction.

“When we bought her she was Florida-sired and nominated. We paid $300,000 for her, which is pretty pricey for one of those fillies. She trained well enough and her gate works were very good so we were optimistic going into the first race. You never really know for sure, but we were optimistic that she would run well,” Joseph said. “The price tag is one thing, but the horse still has to go out there and run.”

Love Like Lucky did just that, emerging from a tussle for the lead to pull away for a 1 ¾-length maiden special weight score over fellow state-breds as the 4-5 favorite under jockey Edgard Zayas. She and Zayas are rated as the 2-1 second choice on the morning line for the Desert Vixen.

“She got into good pace duel, then she got passed by the next horse but she was gusty enough to come back and win the race. I thought it was very good for a debut run and hopefully she can build on that this time,” Joseph said. “She was drawing away at the end. That’s something you want to see in a horse, that tenacity, especially for a first-time starter.”

Joseph won last year’s Desert Vixen with R Morning Brew in a stakes-record time of 1:10.85. Love Like Lucy will break from outermost Post 7.

“Hopefully she’ll be forward again, but she has options,” Joseph said. “She can sit if she needs to, but most likely she’ll be forward and hopefully on the lead.”

Joseph has one horse entered on Friday’s nine-race program that kicks off the 36-day fall Sunshine Meet, Il Marchesse in the opener, a claiming event for 3-year-olds and up going a mile and 70-yards on the all-weather Tapeta course. The 3-year-old gelding graduated in his sixth start, an Aug. 9 maiden claimer at the course and distance in his first race off a $12,500 claim.

Dating back to the 2021 Royal Palm Meet, Joseph owns 13 consecutive meet titles at Gulfstream including the last four Sunshine Meets as well as four straight during the Championship Meet, the country’s premiere winter racing destination.

“It’s very special,” Joseph said. “I’m always grateful and thankful to be given the opportunities and proud of our team for putting in the hard work to get it done. We hope we can keep building on it.”

Rainbow 6 Jackpot Pool Estimated at $100K for Sunshine Meet Opener

Unsolved for three consecutive racing days to wrap up the Royal Palm Meet, Gulfstream Park’s 20-cent Rainbow 6 jackpot pool is estimated at $100,000 when the 36-day fall Sunshine Meet opens Friday.

Post time for the first of nine races is 12:50 p.m.

The Sunshine Meet runs Fridays through Sundays in September, October and November with closing day Sunday, Nov. 23. A total of 18 stakes worth $1.695 million will be offered, starting with the first of three legs in the FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes series for 2-year-olds by accredited Florida stallions – Saturday’s $100,000 Desert Vixen for fillies and $100,000 Dr. Fager.

Four stakes worth $425,000 in purses will be run Saturday, Sept. 20 highlighted by the $200,000 Princess Rooney (G3), a “Win and You’re In” qualifier for the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1). Soul of an Angel swept both races last year en route to the Eclipse Award as champion female sprinter.

The $1.2 million Florida Sire Stakes series continues Saturday, Oct. 18 with the $100,00 Susan’s Girl for fillies and $100,000 Affirmed.

Friday’s Rainbow 6 sequence spans Races 4-9. Don Arienzo Stable’s Show Off chases a third straight win in Race 6, a claiming event for fillies and mares 3 and up scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the grass. In for a $20,000 tag, the 4-year-old filly won at a similar level Aug. 15 going one mile on the turf in her first start off the claim for trainer Fausto Gutierrez.

In the Rainbow 6, the carryover pool is only paid out when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 70 percent of that day’s pool goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners while 30 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.