HALLANDALE BEACH - Peachtree Stable homebred Spirit Doll, dominant in her grass debut last month, is among seven last-out winners and one of three entries from four-time defending Championship Meet leading trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. in the $100,000 Wait a While on Thursday’s opening day program at Gulfstream Park.

    The eight-race Thanksgiving Day holiday program has a special post time of 11:15 a.m.

    For 2-year-old fillies on Gulfstream’s newly refreshed turf course, the 7 ½-furlong Wait a While going two turns is the first of 68 stakes, 27 graded, worth $15.2 million in purses during an 84-day Championship Meet that runs through March 29.

    Spirit Doll, by Tiz the Law, graduated in debut sprinting six furlongs Aug. 7 at Saratoga, where she next endured a troubled trip finishing sixth in the seven-furlong Spinaway (G1). Joseph brought her back to Florida, stretched her out to a mile and put her on the turf for the Oct. 25 Our Dear Peggy, where she came from off the pace to win by 6 ¼ widening lengths.

    “I ran her back quick in the Spinaway but I actually thought she was going to be competitive in that and she didn’t run. I think it was just too quick after the first race,” Joseph said. “She was very impressive the other day and I feel she goes in there, in my opinion, a deserving favorite.

    Spirit Doll drew Post 7 with jockey Edgard Zayas at topweight of 122 pounds and is rated the 5-2 second choice on the morning line.

 

          “She has grass pedigree from the dam [Pakhet] and the Tiz the Laws have run on the grass,” Joseph said. “You’re just kind of hoping she takes to the grass but you never envision that kind of performance, especially the way she quickened. I thought it was very, very impressive so the future is very bright for her.”

 

          Averill Racing’s R Slew of Cash (12-1) already owns a win at the course and distance, graduating by 1 ¼ lengths on the same card as Spirit Doll’s stakes victory. She pressed the early pace in her one-mile unveiling before fading to eighth Sept. 4 at Kentucky Downs.

 

          I thought at Kentucky Downs she ran a good race. She looked like she was going to run good and she got tired,” Joseph said. “Last time she tracked and she quickened nicely. It’s the right race for her. I think the distance is ideal, but she’ll have to show she’s good enough. She’s going to need to improve to be competitive but I think she is eligible to improve.”

 

          Micah Husbands, up for the maiden win, rides back from Post 3.

 

          C2 Racing Stable, BAG Racing Stables, Barry Fowler, Charles Deters and Mark Taylor’s Day to Day (12-1) is winless in three tries since joining Joseph over the summer with one grass start, beaten 5 ½ lengths when eighth in the 1 1/16-mile Miss Grillo (G2) Oct. 4 at Aqueduct. Fourth in the Spinaway, she has Edwin Gonzlaez named to ride from Post 8.

 

          “Her grass race wasn’t that bad in the Miss Grillo. She broke well and then kind of lost position and ended up out wide and kind of ran even,” Joseph said. “We’re going to decide closer to the race if we’re going to run.”

 

          The 2-1 program favorite for the Wait a While is Woodslane Farm homebred Sister Troienne (Post 5), the Brian Lynch trainee that joins Spirit Doll and French import Special Wood as two-time winners in the field. Sister Troienne, by Munnings, has won back-to-back starts since being moved to the turf by eight combined lengths, the latter around two turns, and will have the services of regular Kentucky-based rider dual Derby-winning jockey Mario Gutierrez.

 

          Brody Racing’s Devilish Grin (20-1) is another horse with stakes experience, having run third in the Aug. 27 P.G. Johnson at Saratoga third time out before graduating in an Oct. 4 maiden optional claimer at Aqueduct, both going 1 1/16 miles. JSM Equine’s Haute Diva (10-1) has three seconds from five starts with a lone win coming at one mile Sept. 27 on the Gulfstream turf.

 

          Both Amberglen and Slippers step up to stakes company off impressive debut victories. Stonestreet Stables’ Irish-bred Amberglen (Post 1, 8-1) overcame somewhat of a slow start to rally for a three-quarter-length triumph Oct. 23 going one mile on the Keeneland turf for trainer Brad Cox. Following the race she was sent to South Florida where she shows three breezes at Payson Park.

 

          DJ Stable’s Slippers (Post 4, 9-2) fetched $225,000 as a yearling last fall and didn’t launch her career for more than a year, rallying for a popular three-length maiden special weight triumph sprinting five furlongs Oct. 18 on the Gulfstream turf.

 

          “She had always shown talent,” DJ’s Jon Green said. “She was a little slower developing than the rest of the group. Thankfully, the way [Hall of Fame trainer] Mark Casse has his farm set up, they can go in tranches so she didn’t have to get rushed or get ahead of where she was mentally. But once she put it together at the farm, it took her the matter of a month or two before she really started showing it on the racetrack.

 

          “So, going into that first race we were pretty confident,” he added. “Mark is a two-time Hall of Famer. He doesn’t do too much to get a horse ready first time out because as he likes to say, he’s training a horse for its career not its maiden win. Whenever we win first time out it is kind of a pleasant surprise, but we were pretty confident that she had talent going into that first race.”

 

          Slippers has breezed twice over the all-weather Tapeta course since her race, and will have Miguel Vasquez back in the irons.

 

          “We’re going against winners and winners that have run two turns, so it’s a little different scenario than her first asking,” Green said, “but she’s also had that first experience, she’s a little more mature, and we don’t have to ship her anywhere. For all intents and purposes the majority of the field is in the same boat as we are … a-other-than allowance types running for black-type on opening day.”

 

          Casse also entered Lighthouse Racing’s Backgammon (Post 9, 30-1), a front-running maiden winner going one mile Oct. 18 at Keeneland in her fifth start. Completing the field are Special Wood (Post 10, 20-1), making her North American debut after winning two of three starts in her native France; and the also-eligible Girvana (Post 11, 30-1). comments powered by Disqus