SUWANNEE RIVER
Gulfstream Park, seventh race. Grade 3. Purse: $150,000. Mile-and-an-eighth, turf, fillies and mares. Post: 3:41 p.m.
LOWDOWN: Cherokee Queen has just one win but four second-place finishes from seven starts over the Gulfstream turf. That seconditis is the bad news. The good news is, she obviously likes this course. Last out, in the Grade 3 Marshua’s River, she rallied wide to finish a close fourth going a mile-and-a-sixteenth. The extra yardage works to the 6-year-old mare’s advantage as she makes her fourth start back off a long layoff for trainer Marty Wolfson.
TV: HRTV, Ch. 71
WHIRLAWAY
Aqueduct, eighth race. Purse: $100,000. Mile-and-a-sixteenth, 3-year-olds. Post: 3:49 p.m.
LOWDOWN: Arthur’s Tale went straight from his maiden win to finish fourth in the Jan. 1 Count Fleet, finishing deceptively well after chasing the pace to just miss third by a nose. The Bernardini colt, a $750,000 yearling purchase, seems to be a late bloomer like his father and should move forward with the Count Fleet under his belt.
TV: HRTV, TVG, Ch. 71
STRUB
Santa Anita, ninth race. Grade 2. Purse: $200,000. Mile-and-an-eighth, 4-year-olds. Post: 7:38 p.m.
LOWDOWN: Twirling Candy, one of the most highly regarded colts in the handicap division, makes his 4-year-old debut after winning the seven-furlong Malibu over this track on Dec. 26. Caracortado, the horse that finished third in the Malibu, beaten 31/2 lengths, came back to win the Sunshine Millions Turf in his next start. Though Twirling Candy, winner of five of his six starts, is stretching out, he won the Del Mar Derby at this distance last September.
TV: HRTV, Ch. 71