HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – After launching her U.S. career with a pair of starts against stakes company here earlier in the meet, Ballado’s Beach will get a little class relief dropping in against mid-level optional claiming and allowance competition in Friday’s $96,000 co-feature at Gulfstream Park. The 1 3/8-mile turf test, which goes as race 5 on a nine-race card, will share top billing with a similarly conditioned race for older horses going one mile on the main track. Ballado’s Beach was a Group 1 winner in her final start in her native Argentina at 1 3/8 miles in April of 2024. She joined trainer Ignacio Correas’s barn later in the season, finally returning to the races with a fifth-place finish traveling that same distance in the Via Borghese Stakes on Dec. 26. Encouraged by the effort, Correas stepped the 7-year-old up in company and stretched her out for the 1 1/2-mile, Grade 3 La Prevoyante four weeks later. Ballado’s Beach finished seventh but was defeated just five lengths after racing between horses and within easy striking distance into the stretch. :: Play Gulfstream Park with confidence! DRF Past Performances, Picks, and Clocker Reports available now. “I thought her first effort in the U.S. was very good,” Correas recalled. “And while this might sound too picky, both [jockey] Vincent [Cheminaud] and I had the same impression in her next start that 1 1/2 miles might be just a little too long for her. We each felt she kind of flattened out in that final furlong.” While most handicappers will feel that the third start off the layoff should be the best yet for Ballado’s Beach on Friday, Correas thinks she still may need a little more time to completely adjust to the U.S. style of racing. “I think her best race may still be a couple of months away,” said Correas. “She was used to running a mile and three-eighths around one or two turns back home. Now it’s three turns here, and she doesn’t have that big turn of foot. But she’s training very well and eventually I think she’ll put it all together. People forget, it took Blue Prize” – winner of the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Distaff for Correas – “five starts to win her first race in this country.” Joel Rosario will ride Ballado’s Beach for the first time in Friday’s headliner. One aspect that should stand out to most handicappers is the lack of pace signed on for the event. Among those who could take advantage of that situation is Mama Bella, stretching out around three turns for the first time in her career while coming off a solid second-place finish under entry-level allowance conditions in her only previous start this season on Jan. 11 at Tampa Bay Downs. Mama Bella has been showing good speed in recent morning trials and is well drawn to perhaps slip loose on the lead from the rail under jockey Emisael Jaramillo. The field also includes Sugaree and Sunny Spell, a couple of Irish-breds who launched their careers in Europe before shipping to North America last season, along with Tarneema, Bourbon Thief, Show Off, and Starship Boeing. The co-featured eighth race is led by likely favorite Upstanding, who was a spectacular maiden winner here in his 3-year-old finale for trainer Todd Pletcher before finishing far back when a bit ambitiously placed in the Grade 3 Fred Hooper. Upstanding, a son of Curlin, led at every call en route to a nine-length maiden victory on Dec. 22, earning a career-best 97 Beyer Speed Figure in the process. Anything close to that will have him posing in the winner’s circle again Friday. :: Get Gulfstream Park Clocker Reports from Mike Welsch and the Clocker Team. Available every race day. Catalytic, beaten two heads and a neck in his last three starts, heads a field of rivals that include his Saffie Joseph Jr.-trained stablemate God’s Timing and the Victor Barboza Jr.-conditioned duo of Capitan Danny and Power Humor. The afternoon’s finale lured a wide-open field of 10, with Sinead, exiting a fifth-place finish in the Ladies' Turf Sprint in her 2025 bow, likely to draw plenty of mutuel support along with the Chad Brown-trained Diamond Vega and recent conditioned-claiming winner Tongue Twister. Delgado considering Cool Intentions for Florida Derby Trainer Jorge Delgado said earlier this week he is considering entering Cool Intentions in the $1 million Florida Derby on March 29. Cool Intentions has won two of four starts but has not competed since finishing a non-threatening fifth in the one-mile Mucho Macho Man on Jan. 4. “It’s probably less than a 50-50 chance but not impossible,” said Delgado. “I’ll breeze him in company this weekend with Javier [Castellano] on him and decide from there.” A small but select field is lining up for the 1 1/8-mile Florida Derby that at the moment is likely to include Fountain of Youth winner Sovereignty and Neoequos, the first- and third-place finishers, respectively, in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, and Holy Bull runner-up Tappan Street. Trainer Todd Pletcher currently has several 3-year-olds in consideration for the race, including River Thames, a game second in the Fountain of Youth,  the lightly raced but undefeated Grande, and impressive maiden winner Disruptor.    :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.