Impressive Oct. 13 Debut Winner Favored in Field of Six Saturday
Friday’s Rainbow 6 Jackpot Pool Estimated to Reach $150,000

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – La Gioconda, an eye-catching graduate of her career debut last month for breeder, owner and trainer Gustavo Delgado, will look to successfully make the jump from maiden to stakes winner in Saturday’s $65,000 Juvenile Fillies Sprint at Gulfstream Park.

The 6 ½-furlong Juvenile Fillies Sprint for Florida-bred horses is the headliner on an 11-race program that begins at 12:20 p.m. Last year’s winner, Chi Chi, went on to run third in Gulfstream’s Forward Gal (G3) Feb. 3 and sold for $240,000 at Fasig-Tipton’s fall mixed sale Nov. 4.

Italian for ‘the joyful one’ and a reference to the iconic Mona Lisa portrait by Leonardo da Vinci, La Gioconda served notice as a filly to be watched when she registered a front-running seven-length triumph over a sloppy, sealed main track in a 6 ½-furlong maiden special weight against fellow state-breds Oct. 13 at Gulfstream.

La Gioconda has had one timed breeze since her race, working a half-mile in 48.06 seconds Oct. 30 at Gulfstream, second-fastest of 20 horses.

“She came back out of that race pretty good,” Delgado’s son and assistant, Gustavo Delgado Jr., said. “She’s a filly that we think can be competitive in not just the restricted Florida-bred races but in the open field races. We’re excited to see her run again.”

La Gioconda’s sire, Caracaro, and dam, French Politics, are both former Delgado trainees. Caracaro broke his maiden second time out in January 2020 at Gulfstream and raced twice more, finishing second in both the Peter Pan (G3) and Travers (G1), before being retired and entering stud at Crestwood Farm in Lexington, Ky. in 2021. French Politics was a stakes-placed mare than won six of 35 career starts.

“Caracaro was a nice colt that we had a few years ago and he is a young sire that is exciting with what he’s doing with the breeding right now. All the babies are running,” Delgado Jr. said. “The dam is a filly that my dad claimed when he first came to this country. He always loved the filly and he decided to breed her. He’s had several of her babies now and she’s turned out to be a good broodmare. All the babies come out running and are very competitive. This is the first one that is by Caracaro.”

Delgado Jr. said La Gioconda, who breezed six times since mid-July at Gulfstream ahead of her unveiling, offers reminders from both of her parents.

“This filly, she has the color of the mom and the body type of her dad. She’s massive,” he said. “She’s got a good, good size. She’s very classy. Her pedigree suggests underneath that she can also be turf, but she has done so good on the dirt that there’s no reason to switch her at this point.”

Edwin Gonzalez, leading Edgard Zayas 32-26 in the race for the Sunshine Meet riding title, gets the return call on La Gioconda from Post 5 in a field of six. They are favored on the morning line at 9-5.

“We’re just excited to see her run again. Of course this is a more competitive level against winners now, but she did everything so easy the first time,” Delgado Jr. said. “We don’t know how good the field was that she beat the first time so, like anything, it’s about what’s next. But we have some other nice babies in the barn, thank God, and we can compare her to the other ones we have and she is right there right next to them. We can’t wait to see her run. It’s my dad’s project and my mom is coming, so it’s one of those things that gives you an extra boost.”

Black Type Thoroughbreds, Swinbank Stables, Steve Adkisson and Campeche Stables’ Bella Cleopatra is coming off a similarly dominant debut victory in an open maiden special weight July 13 at Colonial Downs, and has since changed trainers from Carlos Munoz to George Weaver. She is a daughter of two-time Grade 1-winning millionaire Vekoma, also trained by Weaver.

The other last-out winner is John Penn homebred Volatiled, who rebounded after being sixth in debut Sept. 29 to notch a come-from-behind two-length victory Oct. 27 at Gulfstream, both maiden special weight sprints going six furlongs.

Sharp Susan and FSS Desert Vixen runner-up Wiggle An’ Wine; Mrs Worldwide, exiting a third in the Presque Isle Debutante on its all-weather surface Sept. 20; and Valiant Kiss complete the field.

“It’s just a matter of if everything goes right,” Delgado Jr. said. “You always have that doubt about how good they are, especially what kind of horses she’s going to face next time. She should be right there. You always go in with a good positive thought about it, but you always have to be conservative in the sense that sometimes, especially with the babies, they improve so much from one race to another. That same thing could happen to one of the other horses in the race.”

Friday’s Rainbow 6 Jackpot Pool Estimated to Reach $150,000

Gulfstream’s Sunshine Meet resumes with a nine-race program Friday starting at 12:20 p.m. that is expected to see the 20-cent Rainbow 6 jackpot pool grow to an estimated $150,000 after going unsolved for a seventh consecutive racing day Nov. 10. The popular multi-race wager last returned multiple mandatory payouts of $40,299.22 Oct. 26.

The Rainbow 6 jackpot pool is only paid out when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 70 percent of that day’s pool goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners, while 30 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.

Friday’s Rainbow 6 spans Races 4-9. Race 6 is a maiden special weight for 2-year-old fillies sprinting six furlongs that drew a field of nine including a pair of first-time starters from trainers Gustavo Delgado and Victor Barboza Jr. and another from meet-leading trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., 9-5 program favorite Rojo Rita, a daughter of Grade 1-winning sprinter Volatile.

Race 7 is a seven-furlong allowance dash for Florida-bred fillies and mares 3 and up where Averill Racing, Two Eight Racing and ATM Racing’s R Disaster was installed as the 6-5 morning line favorite off back-to-back wins over older horses going six furlongs on off tracks by nine combined lengths.

The feature comes in Race 8, an optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds and up going one mile led by Stonestreet Stables’ sophomore homebred Cardinale, entered to make his first start since running 11th behind recent Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner Sierra Leone in the Feb. 17 Risen Star (G2). Trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, Cardinale launched his career with a 1 ¾-length maiden special weight triumph last November at Gulfstream, where he ran second by a neck in his first try against winners Jan. 5.

Also in the field is Average Joe Racing Stables Ltd.’s multiple stakes-placed Mugatu, who ran eighth in the Preakness (G1) and exits a third against restricted company in the 1 1/8-mile Maryland Million Classic Oct. 12 at Laurel Park; and Power Humor and Havildar, respectively second and third to Holiday Pay under similar conditions four weeks ago.