Sand and Sea Favored in One-Mile, 70-Yard Overnight Handicap
Rainbow 6 Jackpot Estimated to Reach $200,000 Saturday
2-Year-Old Filly Rojo Rita Dazzles in Career Debut Friday

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – As long as he’s been training horses, Eddie Plesa Jr. knows that sometimes change is good. With that in mind, the 75-year-old South Florida mainstay will give Rodney Lundock’s homebred mare Maryquitecontrary – a Grade 2 winner on dirt – her first start over an all-weather surface in Sunday’s $75,000 Daring Kathy at Gulfstream Park.

The one-mile, 70-yard Daring Kathy, an overnight handicap for fillies and mares 3 and up over the Tapeta course, headlines an 11-race program that begins at 12:20 p.m. Daring Kathy won eight races between 2014-16, six of them stakes, including the 2014 My Charmer Handicap (G3) at Gulfstream Park West.

Maryquitecontrary won six of 11 starts topped by 2023 Inside Information (G2), and run second in the Madison (G1) and Princess Rooney (G3) by the time Plesa took over her training that fall. Their first race together was a repeat victory in the one-mile Rampart last December at Gulfstream.

The 5-year-old Florida-bred Maryquitecontrary has gone winless in six races this year, running third in the Inside Information and Royal Delta (G3) and second in the Aug. 17 Sheer Drama. Most recently, she was fifth behind subsequent Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) winner Soul of an Angel in the Sept. 21 Princess Rooney.

When she returned to the work tab for the first time following the race, Maryquitecontrary breezed a half-mile in 47.28 seconds over the Gulfstream Tapeta Oct. 11, fastest of seven horses.

“I worked her on it and she had a black-letter work, did it very easily, and it indicated to me that she liked the surface. Sometimes you find things out late, but you don’t find out until you try them. The indication with her work on the Tapeta showed me that she certainly didn’t mind it. It looks like a good spot for her and I’m looking forward to running her,” Plesa said. “She’s really doing good right now.”

Maryquitecontrary has been third or better in 14 of 18 lifetime starts with seven wins and $691,492 in purse earnings. She is rated at 6-1 on the morning line and will break from Post 3 under jockey Edgard Zayas, aboard for the fourth straight race.

“She’s coming to a point where a decision is going to be made what to do with her, [such as] breed her, which could be a possibility,” Plesa said. “Again, we just have to check all the boxes and the first box I checked when I tried her on the Tapeta she got a positive check there. Stranger things have happened.”

The 9-5 program favorite for the Daring Kathy is James Karp’s Indiana-bred Sand and Sea, who owns three wins and a third in four tries over Gulfstream’s Tapeta including the Orange Blossom and Key West handicaps 28 days apart last December respectively going one mile, 70 yards and 1 1/8 miles.

Sand and Sea also broke her maiden on the Tapeta in her March 2022 season opener for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott. Since last year she has been trained by Mott’s son, Riley, who captured last weekend’s Awesome Banner at Gulfstream with Mr Skylight.

“That’s certainly the idea of having sent her down there early by our standards. She’s won three races on the synthetic there and enjoys the climate and enjoys Gulfstream Park,” Mott said. “It looks like a good spot. She just got beat in an open stake last time so if she runs back to that I’d say she looks pretty competitive.”

Sand and Sea, 6, has won races on dirt, turf and synthetic surfaces over her career, and exits the one-mile, 70-yard HBPA Oct. 7 over Presque Isle Downs’ all-weather track where she raced near the back before her late rally came up a head short.

“Something we kind of found out this fall is that we could rate her, as opposed to her being one dimensional and sending her to the lead,” Mott said. “She’s had some success rating and obviously that gives you plenty of options as far as race scenario goes. If we’re on the lead, great; if not, it’s not the end of the world.”

Trainer David Fawkes will send out Royalight Racing’s Charlie’s Wish, who ran third, less than a length behind Maryquitecontrary, in the Sheer Drama. Last time out, the 4-year-old filly powered to a last-to-first 2 ½-length victory in the Sept. 21 Ginger Punch, rained off the grass to 1 1/16 miles on the Gulfstream Tapeta.

Uruguayan Group 1 winner Pacholli; Infinite Diamond, winner of the 2023 Cash Run on Gulfstream’s main track; Chick’s Shadow, winner of the one-mile, 70-yard Frolic’s Revenge handicap Aug. 17 at Gulfstream; Sun Bee, twice stakes-placed on turf; She Prospers and No Valla complete the field.

Saturday’s Rainbow 6 Jackpot Pool Estimated to Reach $200,000

The 20-cent Rainbow 6 jackpot pool is expected to grow to an estimated $ Saturday at Gulfstream Park after going unsolved for an eighth consecutive racing day Friday.

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.

Saturday’s Rainbow 6 spans Races 6-11, kicked off by the $65,000 Juvenile Fillies Sprint for Florida-breds going 6 ½ furlongs. Favored at 9-5 on the morning line is La Gioconda, a seven-length winner of her unveiling Oct. 13 at Gulfstream. Bella Cleopatra (2-1) also won impressively in her debut, a 6 ½-length score July 13 at Colonial Downs.

First race post time Saturday is 12:20 p.m.

Notes: Kamil Ozhan’s 2-year-old filly Rojo Rita ($4.80) dazzled in debut Friday, romping to a front-running 16 ¼-length maiden special weight victory in 1:11.43 for six furlongs over a fast main track under a hand ride from jockey Edgard Zayas … Zayas and trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. teamed up again with R Disaster ($) in Race 7, an optional claiming allowance for Florida-bred fillies and mares 3 and up. The winning time for seven furlongs was 1:24.56 … Jockey Jose Morelos rode back-to-back winners aboard Devra Warrior ($27.60) in Race 2 and Shedoo Kitten ($8.60) in Race 3 … Edgar Perez also doubled with Mister Kelly ($29) in Race 5 and Morgan Point ($11.80) in Race 8 … Trainer Carlos Perez swept the late double with Morgan Point and Cacique Abarrio ($15) in Race 9.