By Joe Quillen
Friday 2/16/24 – Gulfstream Park Race 8
We are staying at Gulfstream Park for the Friday edition of Quills Picks Winners as we have three year old maiden fillies going a mile on the turf course here. A field of 11 females will head to the gate for the penultimate race of the day with an approximate post time of 3;37 pm Eastern time.
Don’t worry about the five horses that have “Entered 14Feb24 – 5 GP” on your programs If they are still there when you pull up your programs on Friday, the 5 Lady Madonna (15/1 morning line), the 6 Z Train (10/1 ML), the 7 Celebrity Ro (6/1 ML), the 8 Final Draft (12/1 ML) and the 9 Just Maryann (12/1 ML) were all scratched from Wednesday’s race. So you don’t have to go back to Wednesday’s chart when you start looking at this race, because barring anything unforeseen, they all should be running today.
It looks like the 3 Star Performance (20/1 ML) and potentially the 5 Lady Madonna and the 9 Just Maryann could be dueling on the lead here. With the first-time starters here, namely the 1 Spaliday (8/1 ML) and the 10 Bored No More (3/1 ML), we could have a speed duel here, or we could have a bunch of stuff that I am not expecting here.
Both first timers Spaliday and Bored No More are trained by Chad Brown, who wins 17% of the time on horses debuting and 19% with horses debuting on the turf going a mile or longer. Keep an eye on how they are acting on Friday in case they are misbehaving and wasting energy because they are experiencing something they never had before this day. I lean more towards the 10 here of these two first timers.
The favorite Hidden Presence (#2, 5/2 ML) had all kinds of issues in her last race, getting bumped around at the start of her last race, and then having to go five wide on the tighter turns of the turf course. If she has a clean trip, she will win this. Also, she is wearing blinkers for the first time on Friday, and if you play off of this betting angle, this horse may be your choice to place your money.
Lady Madonna had a horrible trip last time out breaking in towards the rail last time out and getting bumped around. She could get a piece of this in the end.
I’m going to eat some chalk here and make my play $20 to win on the 2 Hidden Presence. I’m calling this race 2-10-5-1 in the eighth at Gulfstream Park. Good luck everyone, and I’ll catch you on Saturday for another Quills Picks Winners.
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