Scarlet Sands Chasing Third Straight Win in Miss Gracie

Tapeta Stakes for 3-Year-Old Fillies Headlines Saturday Card

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Raleigh Racing Stable’s Scarlet Sands, a back-to-back winner on turf, looks to transfer that form to the all-weather Tapeta course when she steps up to stakes company for the first time in Saturday’s $75,000 Miss Gracie at Gulfstream Park.

The one-mile, 70-yard Miss Gracie for 3-year-old fillies is the headliner on a 10-race program that begins at 12:50 p.m.

Trainer Carlos David claimed Scarlet Sands for $75,000 out of a Feb. 5 race at Gulfstream where she stumbled at the start and lost jockey Edgard Zayas. The $230,000 daughter of three-time Grade 1-winning millionaire Omaha Beach was winless in two prior starts for trainer Chad Brown.

“They paid a lot for her as a yearling,” David said. “These fillies, if they don’t make it as a racehorse they can still be productive as a broodmare prospect. It just kind of made sense, for the money, to claim her.”

Beaten twice in maiden special weight company including a third April 10, Scarlet Sands broke through with a popular 1 ¾-length stalk-and-pounce victory less than three weeks later while in for a $50,000 tag. She followed up with a determined 1 ½-length triumph June 13 in her first try against winners.

“We ran her in the maiden special after claiming her from Chad. During the Championship Meet it’s a little bit tougher. I put the blinkers on and that seemed to help her,” David said. “She improved the next time. We took a step down in class to the maiden 50 and she did it very nicely. We took a try again in the open allowance and she won that, too.

“We were going to take her to Saratoga but I think it’s better to try to get some black type here and then go on. If she does this then we can look at something up north,” he added. “We want to keep her confidence up. She’s been doing everything right, so we don’t want to kill that switch just yet and just go step by step.”

Edwin Gonzalez, who recently won his 2,000th career race and was up for Scarlet Sands’ maiden victory, will be back aboard from Post 4 in a field of six in what will be her first try on the synthetic.

“I’m happy for Edwin. He works hard,” David said. “I think the filly should be fine [on Tapeta]. She hasn’t skipped a beat. She’s breezing good. She’s happy and hopefully she overcomes the field.”

Also exiting a win and making her synthetic debut is Ad Hoc Stable Inc.’s Crafty Collector. Six of her seven starts, all this year, have been on grass with the one exception coming in her second start Feb. 21 when the race was moved to Tampa Bay Downs’ main track.

Crafty Collector had one second and three thirds in six tries before graduating in a one-mile claimer against older horses June 20 at Gulfstream, where she came up the rail and dug in for a half-length victory with Gonzalez riding.

“Her last race was a really strong race,” trainer Gerald Bennett said. “She had been improving off of the race before where she got in trouble and she came up to a big race there. She’s been really, really good on turf, but since there’s no turf now it looked like a pretty good spot to try. I think she should handle it.”

Jose Ferrer gets the riding assignment on Craft Collector, who will break from the rail.

“She’s been breaking good and she’s got enough speed to get out. I’ve raced on Tapeta enough at Presque Isle [Downs] to know you’ve got to be out there four or five wide. They don’t win up the rail too often,” Bennett said. “Going long, they do come from off of the pace a little better. She kind of can do anything, this filly. She’s put herself close enough and she relaxes, and she’s not very hard to ride or anything.”

Special Aviators LLC, Span Investments, Inc. and trainer Rohan Crichton’s Special Aviator looks to snap a seven-race losing streak dating back to her second career start last fall when she won the one-mile Our Dear Peggy over the Gulfstream turf. She has never been worse than third in four tries on the Tapeta, including a 3 ¾-length maiden special weight triumph in debut at the Miss Gracie distance.

The other horse in the field with a win on the Gulfstream Tapeta is Hutton ESK’s Oxar, who registered a half-length maiden claiming victory Feb. 25, also at one mile and 70 yards. She went unraced until July 12, returning to be seventh in an optional claimer at the course and distance against her elders.

Reveron Racing, Inc.’s Olivia Valentina, most recently third in the 1 1/16-mile Martha Washington June 7 on the Gulfstream turf, and Saeed Nasser Alremeithi’s Annie Goodbody, a restricted maiden special weight winner last summer at Saratoga that has faced such horses as graded-stakes winners Abientot and Scythian and multiple stakes winner Starship Impulsive, complete the field.