Happy New Year everyone! It’s a new year, and it is also every horse’s birthday today. Well, not really, but today is the universal day used in the Northern Hemisphere to determine the age of horses. I mean, that’s what we really stayed up until midnight for, right?
For me, it’s time that I stash away the word “juvenile” until the spring when the newest crop of two-year-olds start hitting the track. Horses that were two-year-olds yesterday are newly minted three-year-olds as is the case with this field of eight horses today.
Gulfstream Park’s feature today is the Dania Beach Stakes where a field of eight will go one mile on the turf course. Post time for the featured race today is set for 4:21 pm Eastern time.
Gulfstream Park Race 9 – Dania Beach Stakes
Favored in our first featured race of 2025 is the 2 Dream On (6/5 morning line). He finished fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf two moths ago at Del Mar. He tried to go gate to wire and almost did that. There is no shame finishing fifth in a race that is dominated by the European entrants.
This colt looks like lone speed in this race which could be very dangerous here today. As long as he stays out of trouble, he could romp here today.
The only horse that could go for the lead is the 4 Mi Bago (3/1 ML). He showed a different tactic last time out at Gulfstream going for the lead, but I do not think he is fast enough to keep up with the favorite early on here.
The 1 Bucaro has some issues in the Pulpit here at Gulfstream last time out. He cut the beginning of the first turn a little too close and bumped the rail. He wasn’t catching Mi Bago that day and will hope for an uneventful trip around the turf course today.
The 8 Hammerhead returns to the turf after just missing on the synthetic last month at Woodbine. He broke his maiden impressively on the inner turf at Woodbine at the end of October. He gets back on the turf here and though he will be tested, he should be closing here in this race.
Joe’s Pick
Being lone speed is a dangerous thing, and that will be on display here in our featured race here at Gulfstream. Dream On is facing a shorter field today and not the caliber of a Breeders’ Cup race. He will get to the front and not look back here.
Yes, it’s not a longshot to win our first race, but sometimes you have to eat chalk when you want to pick winners. Let’s go with Dream On here. I’ll call this race 2-1-8-4.
I’ll start the year with two wagers. First, I’ll go with a $20 win wager on the 2. Then I will go with a $1 superfecta key of 2 over the 1,4 & 8. The latter wager will be a $6 wager if all horses run. If any of those four horses in the superfecta are scratched, it will be a voided wager.
Anyways, I hope everyone has a great start to 2025, and I will see you in the winner’s circle!