Florida Racing Club to Host Stakes Series for Juvenile Florida-Breds This Summer

Race Names to Fete Past and Current Florida-Bred Greats

The Florida Racing Club is hosting a series of stakes races for Florida-bred 2-year-olds to be run this summer and open to all qualifying horses in the Sim, not just residents. The races mirror the real-life Florida Sire Series which has been an ongoing venture in South Florida since 1982.

The series starts with two six-furlong races — one open, one restricted to fillies — on August 5. Two seven-furlong races will be run September 2, with a pair of 1 1/16-mile stakes races concluding the series on September 30. Additionally, reflecting the recent addition of a one-mile stakes race for 3-year-olds in the real life series, a race of that length and with that restriction will be run September 30.

As in the real life Florida Sire Series, with races named for the likes of Dr. Fager and My Dear Girl, the stakes races have been named in honor of some of the best Florida-breds the Sim has produced.

August 5
Oblivious Nation Stakes, 6 furlongs, 2-year-olds
Junior Rule Stakes, 6 furlongs, 2-year-old fillies

September 2
Cactus Rich Stakes, 7 furlongs, 2-year-olds
Pray For Me Stakes, 7 furlongs, 2-year-old fillies

September 30
My First Gunnevera Stakes, 1 1/16-miles, 2-year-olds
Dubai Prospector Stakes, 1 11/16-miles, 2-year-old fillies
Richard Grunder Stakes, 8 furlongs, 3-year-olds

Here’s a quick look at these past (and present) Sim greats:

Oblivious Nation: This son of Darn That Alarm won 11 of 49 races in a career that spanned from 2000 to 2003. He started with Lordpye, then raced for a Super1 substable before switching hands multiple times among since retired players. He then settled in with Railrider for a lengthy run which included a win in the questioning (and questionable) grade one Who Has the Best Dinosaur? Stakes, which was restricted to horses nine years old and up and was answered Railrider: Oblivious Nation.

Junior Rule: The original Junior Rule, son of Bucksplasher, not to be confused with the Sim’s Junior Rule II or Junior Rule III. Just plain Junior Rule. Junior Rule raced 80 times from 1999- 2005 and earned over $3.7 million. He started out with A Sparkit sub-stable for whom he won three listed stakes in succession on two occasions, Davarto’s Jungleboy then took over and notched Junior Rule’s first graded win in the grade 3 Saints Handicap. A grade two win followed, but Davarto couldn’t quite get him a grade one triumph from a trio of such attempts, though he did finish second to Duke Ali in the 2002 Man o’ War Mile in his last start for Davarto. Moving over to Lourival’s Eridya barn, Junior Rule again ruled the Saints Handicap and three months later notched his lone grade one win in the 1 1/8-mile New Hampshire Handicap, in a field that included Hall of Famer Dusty Dance. Bardauber’s Forli stable saw out the final races of his career.

Cactus Rich: Cactus Rich’s sire Treasure Beach is still a going thing in Florida breeding, with that son of Galileo being one of my favorite Florida sires to use in the Sim. Cactus Rich was bred by Trotter and did his best running for that stables Katiesfarm. (Indeed, Cactus Rich failed to win a race from 29 starts for owners Higherstandard, Robdz, Redcheats, or Smittie684.) That best running includes a one-length win in the High Flyer Stakes (gr. 1) as a juvenile and a 1 1/4-length triumph in the Fivestarnick Handicap (gr. 2) as a 4-year-old, as well as a couple of local championship wins in a 65-race career from 2014- 2021. So all told, 65 races, 12 wins, $1.275 million in earnings, job done.

Pray For Me: Frog Racing Stables’ Kidsid bred Pray For Me, and owned the chestnut mare for the entirety of her 33-race career. Eight wins total for the daughter of Songandaprayer, seven of them in stakes company, with the eighth coming in the seven-furlong, grade one Dancer Cap in her lone try in grade one company. Now it wasn’t the stiffest grade one test in the history of the Sim, but it did include Kingab’s former grade one winner Cupid’s Companion and Trooper7’s La Chienne, who gets a call out here for getting the gender correct with that name.

My First Gunnevera: A going concern in the Sim, My First Gunnervera most recently finished second for Sjmeola in a Florida Local Champions race at nine furlongs on turf, earning a career high speed figure of 119 in his second-career try on grass. That 1 1/8-mile distance seems to be the specialty for My First Gunnevera, who reeled off consecutive grade one wins at the distance during Bluegrass Derby prep season last year, taking his grade one Equinics heat and the Florida Derby (gr. 1). Following that last race – his third straight graded stakes win — My First Gunnevera finished a gutty second to Kaner’s Nightborne in the Bluegrass Derby, him being the odd man out in the superfecta that was otherwise populated by top sires from Kentucky (Justify, Medaglia d’Oro, and Quality Road). (As an aside on Gunnevera, I always thought he was past his best distance at 10 furlongs and maybe the Sim has him figured that way in the breeding shed too.) Out of a stakes winning A.P. Indy x Mr. Prospector mare, My First Gunnevera has already earned nearly $3.8-million and is still going strong.

Dubai Prospector: Thechamp’s Dubai Prospector is another Florida-bred who finished second in the Bluegrass Derby (also finishing two-lengths back, this one to Stoners’ Anticosti in 2005). As a juvenile, she won the grade 3 Arizona Shoot-out Special in her second start and while still a maiden two starts before winning the Getaway Stakes (gr. 1) and finishing second in a pair of grade ones, the Breeders Bowl Juvenile Filly (won by Fernando’s Santillana) and The GLOBALISM Special on Christmas Day. She waited to start her sophomore season in March’s Louisiana Oaks (gr. 2), winning that and then also the lool Oaks (gr. 1) ahead of her Bluegrass Derby appearance. The EOY award winner failed to win another race following the lool Oaks.

While the Florida Racing Club Florida Sires Series races are open to all qualifying horses in the Sim, the residency will also have a contest for residents where points can be earned in each of the races with a nice payout in credits for the winner, and lesser credits for second- and third-place finishers. The residency is actively seeking new members for anyone considering adding the fun of joining a residency to their Sim experience.

https://floridaracingclub.freeforums.net/