By Alan Carasso
8th-CD, $127k, Alw, 3yo/up, f/m, post time: 4:33 p.m. ET
Bass Stables' beautifully bred BANDITA (Gun Runner) could not have been more impressive in her lone racetrack appearance to date, as she led every step of the seven furlongs on Gulfstream debut Jan. 29 to score by nearly nine lengths en route to a 'TDN Rising Star' nod (video). The $350,000 Keeneland September grad is unraced since. The bay is out of a daughter of four-time stakes winner and Grade III-placed Simplify (Pulpit), the dam of Bandita's stakes-winning full-sister Optionality and of SW Simple Surprise (Cowboy Cal), whose two-time Grade I-winning son Gunite (Gun Runner) was runner-up in last Saturday's GI Breeders' Cup Sprint and is a new addition to the stallion roster at Coolmore in Kentucky. TJCIS PPs
7th-GP, $50k, Msw, 2yo, f, 7f, 3:04 p.m ET
Fans of the 1960s band the Turtles and handicappers alike might flock to the debuting HAPPY TOGETHER (Speightstown) here. The Jan. 23 is the first foal from the stakes-placed Coexistence (Violence), who was purchased by the Lyster family's Ashview Farm for $190,000 out of the 2019 Keeneland November Sale. Herself a $425,000 KEESEP purchase by Robert and Lawana Low, the bay is bred on the very successful cross of Speighstown over Medaglia d'Oro responsible for the likes of Grade I winners Rock Fall, Olympiad, Competitionofideas and this year's GI Del Mar Futurity hero Prince of Monaco. TJCIS PPs
3rd-DMR, $63k, Alw/OC, 2yo, f, 5fT, 4:29 p.m. ET
JULIAS DREAM (Flameaway), a $15,000 KEESEP yearling, blossomed into a $180,000 OBS April juvenile after working an eighth of a mile in a slick :9 4/5. The chestnut filly made the very most of her first trip to the races in a course-and-distance maiden Aug. 6, winning off by 5 1/2 lengths to become a 'Rising Star' and connections could hardly be faulted for taking a crack in the GI Del Mar Debutante, where she finished down the field behind fellow 'Rising Star' Tamara (Bolt d'Oro). The Talla Racing colorbearer gets Flavien Prat for this return to action. TJCIS PPs
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