Stablemates Steal Sunshine, Back Em Up Meet in Wildcat Red

Co-Headlines July 3 Program with $100,000 Sharp Susan for 2YOs

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Grade 2 winner Steal Sunshine and Grade 3-placed stablemate Back Em Up, combined winners of 13 races and nearly $1.1 million in purses, face eight rivals including multiple stakes winner Lightning Tones in the $70,000 Wildcat Red overnight handicap Friday at Gulfstream Park.

The Wildcat Red for 3-year-olds and up going a one-turn mile serves as co-feature with the $100,000 Sharp Susan for 2-year-old fillies sprinting 5 ½ furlongs on a nine-race program to kick off Independence Day holiday weekend racing.

First race post time is 12:20 p.m.

Now 7, Michael and Jules Iavarone and TCC Stables’ Steal Sunshine will be making his 39th career start in the Wildcat Red, named for the Florida-bred Hutcheson (G3) and Fountain of Youth (G2) winner and Florida Derby (G1) runner-up of 2014 that won six of 22 races and more than $1.1 million in purse earnings.

Steal Sunshine has been with trainer Bobby Dibona since his December 2021 debut and has won eight races, four in stakes, highlighted by the 2024 Gulfstream Park Mile (G2). The late-running Constitution horse has also placed in seven graded-stakes and earned his most recent victory in the two-turn Finallymadeit overnight handicap last November.

“He’s been with me a long time,” Dibona said. “I’ve had him five years. We went to Dubai and Kentucky and all around. He thinks he’s on vacation. He’s a great shipper, and he loves it here.”

Seven of Steal Sunshine’s wins have come over Gulfstream’s main track, four of them at one mile, where he is 6-for-15 lifetime. Last time out he closed to be second, beaten a half-length, in a 1 1/16-mile optional claimer May 31 – his first start in two months – under jockey Diego Herrera. The 22-year-old Herrera, three months into his first full-time gig at Gulfstream, leads the Royal Palm Meet rider standings and gets the return call from Post 6 at co-topweight of 123 pounds.

“He’s doing well,” Dibona said. “I just wish I knew, with the nice speed that he possesses, [why] he does not want to use it early. He finds himself 10 [lengths] behind in every race. In Dubai he would have won it. He was 20 behind. And he’s fast, but you can’t change his running style. You gotta let him do what he wants.”

Dibona claimed 4-year-old Back Em Up for $25,000 on behalf of Keough and Meaney and TCC Stables out of a runner-up finish going six furlongs last October. Since then the Take Charge Indy gelding has run nine times with three wins and seconds in the one-mile Fred Hooper (G3) Jan. 24 – a race where Steal Sunshine ran sixth – March 28 Army Mule and, most recently, the June 6 Big Drama, each at seven furlongs.

“He’s been a fabulous claim,” Dibona said. “He’s still searching for his best game. I’ve been skipping the two-other-than because it hasn’t been available. I normally would never skip a condition, but he’s doing good.”

Samy Camacho gets the call on Back Em Up from Post 8, also at 123 pounds. Back Em Up will be trying one mile for just the third time but has been third or better in 13 of 17 career tries at Gulfstream.

“I’m going to be more forwardly placed with Back Em Up. Sunshine is going to put in his patented late run. If he runs him down, he runs him down,” Dibona said. “I try not to do that but you’ve got to be fair to the owners. If two owners have a horse that belong in the same race, you’ve got to give them both a chance.”

Lightning Tones (Post 1, Jose Morelos, 123), owned and trained by Jose Castro, was most recently fourth in the 1 1/16-mile Ghostzapper (G3) March 28 at Gulfstream, three lengths ahead of Steal Sunshine in sixth. The 4-year-old gelding is a four-time stakes winner including back-to-back editions of the Sunshine Classic, and ran third behind Steal Sunshine in the Finallymadeit.

Twice Group 1-placed in his native Chile, 7-year-old The Thor (Post 2, Rajiv Maragh, 118) in winless in nine North American starts while placing four times, the last in a one-mile optional claimer May 29 at Gulfstream where he ran third. Second that day was Nothingsubtle (Post 4, Leonel Reyes, 119), third-place finisher in the six-furlong Sunshine Sprint Jan. 17.

JR Ranch, Marquee Bloodstock, High Step Racing and OGMA Investments’ Racing Driver (Post 10, Jesus Rios, 121) was beaten a neck for second by Steal Sunshine May 31 after racing three times during the 2025-2026 Championship Meet including a third in the Ghostzapper and a fourth in the Hooper. The 4-year-old son of 2011 Florida Derby winner Dialed In has two wins and a second in six tries at one mile.

Completing the field are I Know I Know (Post 3, Keith Asmussen, 118), Icelander (Post 5, Yolber Torres, 118), Roar of the Beast (Post 7, Micah Husbands, 120) and Fiveeyesonskystars (Post 9, Edgar Perez, 117).