Photo: MEC
Richard Averill’s 5-year-old mare Easy Ashley was the
9-to-5 favorite to win the $50,000 Lightning Stakes last out on Dec. 12 at
Tampa Bay Downs and finished a game second by a half-length. She appears to be
in a somewhat softer spot in Friday’s ‘a other than’ allowance feature at Gulfstream
Park,
both races run at five furlongs on turf.
Jockey Jesus Castanon rides Easy Ashley for trainer Wesley
Ward in a field of 12 fillies and mares after a campaign that began last year
winning a starter/allowance race going five furlongs on turf at Atlantic
City in mid-April. Ward bred
the daughter of Bring the Heat in California.
Easy Ashley also won turf sprint races at Churchill Downs and Saratoga
last year, and finished a close-up third in a Santa Anita allowance on the
Pro-Ride synthetic surface in October before shipping back east.
Also likely to attract support in Friday’s feature is
Avalon Farm’s 4-year-old homebred filly Argyle Pink with Julien Leparoux aboard
for trainer Eddie Kenneally as the daughter of Sky Mesa makes her turf debut.
Argyle Pink, third in the Matron Stakes (G2) at Belmont Park as a 2-year-old,
finished seventh in her only start last year, but looked good finishing third
here in an allowance on Jan. 15.
Completing the field are Elisabeth Alexander’s Pina
Colada, Patricia Generazio’s Shimmering Tina, Lawrence Foggle’s Cherry on
Top, Mike Tarp’s County Lass, Eaton Hall Farm’s Caoutchouc, Doubledown Stable’s
Allaboutimage, Andrew Farm’s Obsequious, Michael Ryan’s Bright Star, New
Suffolk Racing’s Dancing With Lions and Everett Dobson’s French Dip, the latter
entered for ‘main track only.’
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