Winplaceandshow Puts Streak to Test in $100,000 Azalea

Competitive 3YO Filly Sprint Features Six Last-Out Winners

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – D. J. Stable and Robert Cotran’s promising filly Winplaceandshow, exiting a career-best effort, chases a third consecutive victory when she makes her stakes debut against five other last-out winners in Saturday’s $100,000 Azalea at Gulfstream Park.

The Azalea for 3-year-old fillies sprinting seven furlongs on the main track headlines an 11-race Father’s Day eve program that kicks off at 12:20 p.m.

Bred in Florida by Brereton C. Jones and purchased for $90,000 out of Keeneland’s September 2024 yearling sale, Winplaceandshow is among three horses eligible for a $25,000 bonus through the Florida-Bred Incentive Fund. The others are her Joe Orseno-trained stablemate, Cotran’s Win Bet Only, and Flying Finish Farm, Inc. homebred Flowko.

“We were pretty high on her when we bought her and she came in and looked good and trained great into her first race. She just got better from there,” Orseno said of Winplaceandshow. “She’s earned a shot in here, for sure.”

Winplaceandshow ran third to May 15 Black-Eyed Susan (G2) winner My Miss Mo in debut last November, 2 ½ lengths behind Win Bet Only, coming back with a popular and convincing open maiden score going 6 ½ furlongs in December.

After finishing fourth against the boys in a seven-furlong state-bred allowance Jan. 29 to launch her sophomore campaign, Winplaceandshow was a determined front-running head winner of a similar spot over Florida-bred fillies March 20 and followed up with a dominant 7 ½-length optional claiming romp against open company May 10 at the Azalea distance.

“She’s been a pretty honest filly for us. She ran the way I thought she would that day. She ran very well,” Orseno said of her last race, which produced a career high 75 Beyer Speed Figure, second-best in the field behind Late Night Text’s 83. “We’ve been happy with her.”

Edwin Gonzalez, up for the most recent effort, gets the return call from Post 1.

“She can sit off the pace. She’ll do whatever you want her to do. That’s the beauty of her,” Orseno said. “She’s just a young filly. Her future’s in front of her.”

Orseno said he was unsure whether Win Bet Only (Post 5, Miguel Vasquez) would run. She has one win from a field-high 13 career starts, a seven-furlong maiden claiming triumph Feb. 8 at Tampa Bay Downs. She ran in two legs of the Florida Sire Stakes Series last fall, finishing third behind Mythical in November’s My Dear Girl.

Bred, owned and trained by Rory Miller, Flowko (Post 2, Samy Camacho) is out of the With Distinction mare Vino de Pago and the younger half-sister to 5-year-old stakes-winning mare Let’s Go Koko, who owns nine wins and more than $300,000 in purse earnings from 28 starts.

Flowko has been third or better in eight of her 12 races, two of them wins, the most recent in a 6 ½-furlong state-bred allowance sprint over older horses May 31 at Gulfstream, which followed back-to-back thirds in Tampa’s seven-furlong Sophomore Fillies March 29 and Gulfstream’s six-furlong Sophomore Fillies Sprint April 25.

“I made a little equipment change on her and I think it probably helped her. It appears to have helped her. She came out of the race perfect,” Miller said. “I wasn’t planning on running back in this race, it was only three weeks, but it was coming up light and she sort of galloped through her last race. She wasn’t very tired afterward. It wasn’t like she got pressed hard, so we thought we’d go ahead and give her a chance.”

Flowko is 2-for-5 on Gulfstream’s main track, graduating by a nose in a six-furlong maiden special eight and finishing 10th to Mythical in the seven-furlong FSS Susan’s Girl 15 days apart last October. She has hit the board in each of her last six starts, two of them coming on the turf.

“The stallion stakes, about a month before she came home from her win at Gulfstream with the worst skin rash. I’ve never seen one that bad. I had to really work on it,” Miller said. “I never should have never ran her. She fought that skin infection for a month and I think it just drained her. She didn’t show up, and then after that she was fine after she cleared that out.”

Flowko finished third behind subsequent Miss Preakness (G3) runner-up Tessellate in her second and most recent try at seven furlongs, the farthest she’s ever run.

“I feel pretty good about it. I think we can be pretty competitive in there,” Miller said. “[Trainer] Saffie Joseph [Jr.]’s got one in there that looks like it broke its maiden nicely and Orseno has that one that looks pretty nice. It’s hard to divide a bunch of them up. They’re all just nice hard-knocking fillies. I think it’s going to be whoever gets the trip and has a good day is probably the winner.”

Joseph will send out Daugherty Racing and 24th Road Racing’s Late Night Text (Post 3, Micah Husbands), who debuted for the barn with a 1 ¾-length maiden special weight victory at the course and distance April 23. She was winless with one second and two thirds from five tries for previous trainer Nolan Ramsey at distances from 5 ½ furlongs to 1 1/16 miles on both dirt and all-weather Tapeta.

William Du Pont III’s Permian Basin (Post 6, Diego Herrera) has split two prior runnings with Flowko this year. She was second by a neck to Adios Tootsie in a six-furlong optional claimer March 1 at Tampa when Flowko was 2 ½ lengths back in third, and ran fifth in a similar spot going a mile on the Tampa turf Feb. 13, a race where Flowko finished second. Most recently, Permian Basin rallied for a popular three-quarter-length triumph in a seven-furlong optional claimer against males May 1 at Tampa.

Niall J. Brennan’s Sorokin (Post 4, Rasheed Hughes) and Tareq Mourbarak-owned and trained Wander Woman (Post 7, Renzo Rojas) each exit victories. In just her second start Sorokin was a two-length maiden special weight winner going seven furlongs March 27 at Tampa, while Wander Woman scored by 4 ¼ lengths over males in a six-furlong maiden special weight sprint May 24 at Gulfstream.