Horse Betting World

Bravo Bravo! Jock Pulls Off Longshot Stakes Double at Gulfstream Park

By Mike Dempsey

Jockey Joe Bravo, known as “Jersey Joe” may have his moniker changed to “Florida Joe” after pulling off a pair of upsets in Sunday’s stakes races at Gulfstream Park.

Bravo first rode Little Mike ($27.80) to a gate to wire score in the $100,000 Ft. Lauderdale (G3), then followed up in the next race with an even bigger upset, piloting Justaroundmidnight ($54.00) in the $100,000 Marshua’s River (G3).

The two wins put Bravo in a tie for the top in the jockey standings with four victories along with Julien Leparoux.

It has taken Leparoux 28 mounts to pick up four victories, while Bravo has his four wins with just nine mounts.

In the Ft. Lauderdale, Little Mike had shown speed in most of his starts, but won an allowance race at Calder in his last start with a late rally after getting checked on the turn.

Bravo, who has now taken the gelding to the winners circle five times, decided to resort to the gelding’s old tactics and sent him right to the lead.

“If they were going to outrun us, they were going to have to outrun us,” said Bravo. “It looks like Little Mike is becoming a Big Mike.”

The gelding set solid early fractions of 23.08 and 46.79 while off the rail, opened up a clear lead heading for home and held on by a nose over the late charging Blues Street with jockey Kent Desormeaux aboard.

Blues Street was sent off at nearly 12/1 and the exacta came back at $241.00. The 10/1 Smart Bid completed a $1,210.60 trifecta.

Allen Iwinski trains Little Mike on behalf of owners Priscilla Vaccarezza and KZ Stables.

Bravo used different tactics in the Marshua’s River aboard Justaroundmidnight, who broke from the 11 post in the 1 1/16 mile turf event.

The four-year-old filly was outrun in the early going, split rivals on the far turn, angled to the outside and ran down the leaders late to win by a half length.

The filly was originally entered in an allowance race on Thursday, but did not get in off the also-eligible list, so trainer Patrick Biancone elected the tougher spot despite the seven-month layoff.

Longshot Persuading set the early fractions and looked as if she had a good chance of taking the field gate to wire until Bravo got his filly going late.

Persuading was sent off at 36/1 and completed a hefty exacta payoff of $1,071.60. Never Retreat, who was sent off at 8/1 completed the trifecta, which paid $10,757.60.

There are three stakes races coming up this weekend at Gulfstream Park.

On Saturday, four-year-olds and upward will go six furlongs on the main track in the $100,000 Mr. Prospector (G3), and the $100,000 Sugar Swirl (G3) for fillies and mares at six furlongs on dirt will share the billing.

The feature on Sunday is the $100,000 Dania Beach for three-year-olds going one mile on turf.

Look for a preview of upcoming stakes action later this week on horsebettingworld.com and check us out on Twitter and Facebook.