‘Rose’ Faces Sharp Rivals in Return to Action

[Wandering Eyes]

Fresh on the heels of being crowned champion female sprinter of 2018 at the Eclipse Awards at Gulfstream Park Thursday night, Conrad Farms’ Shamrock Rose (First Dude) will have the opportunity to extend her four-race win streak into 2019 when she goes postward in a competitive renewal of the GIII Fasig-Tipton Hurricane Bertie S. at the Hallandale oval. Shamrock Rose catapulted herself to the forefront of her division with an impressive second half of the 2018 season, which included a convincing score in the Oct. 20 GII Lexus Raven Run S. and a furious last-to-first rally in the GI Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint Nov. 3. While both of those victories came at the Hurricane Bertie’s seven-furlong distance, the Mark Casse trainee finds herself in a spot with significantly less confirmed early speed signed on, perhaps necessitating a slight change in tactics.

Cleber J. Massey’s Blamed (Blame) appears to be the likely pacesetter, having set a pressured tempo en route to a runner-up finish behind Shamrock Rose in the Raven Run prior to wiring the field in the GIII Comely S. over nine furlongs at Aqueduct Nov. 23. The filly, who began her career competing in New Mexico for trainer Joel Marr before being transferred to the barn of Hall of Famer Bill Mott, has never finished out of the exacta in eight career starts.

Once-beaten ‘TDN Rising Star’ Dream Pauline (Tapit) enters off a victory in the Dec. 15 GIII Sugar Swirl S. over a sloppy local track–a race in which she struck the front at the quarter pole and had enough gas left to hold off the reopposing Stormy Embrace (Circular Quay) by a neck. A Stonestreet Stables homebred, Dream Pauline will make her first start at a distance beyond six furlongs Saturday.

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