Three Stakes Top New Year's Eve Card at Gulfstream

Before 2021 comes to a close, Gulfstream Park wraps up the year with three $100,000 turf stakes, led by the Janus Stakes, which is headed by group 1-winning sprinter Extravagant Kid. An earner of more than $1.6 million, DARRS' Extravagant Kid was last seen in action in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1T) at Del Mar, where he finished ninth behind Golden Pal. But the Brendan Walsh trainee ran close to the nation's top grass sprinter a start before, finishing second to him, beaten 2 1/4 lengths, in the Woodford Stakes Presented by TVG (G2T) at Keeneland. On Friday, he gets class relief in the ungraded Janus, though not so much so that he would be favored. He is the 3-1 second choice on the morning-line behind William Branch's 7-5 favorite Carotari, a fast last-out allowance winner at Keeneland who sports a 3-1-0 record in four starts on the Gulfstream turf course for trainer Brian Lynch. Extravagant Kid, a gelded 8-year-old son of Kiss the Kid, is 3-3-2 in 11 starts at Gulfstream on turf and 15-17-7 in 54 starts overall. This year he traveled overseas to capture the Al Quoz Sprint Sponsored By Azizi Developments (G1T) at Meydan and ran third in the King's Stand Stakes (G1) at Royal Ascot. He has won or placed in 27 stakes, beginning in his 3-year-old year. Tyler Gaffalione is on Extravagant Kid while leading rider Luis Saez is on Carotari (Artie Schiller), winner of a second consecutive Silks Run Stakes at Gulfstream in March. The field also includes stakes winners Smokin' Jay, Xy Speed, Omaha City, and Yes I Am Free. The Janus is Friday's first race, followed four races later by the Via Borghese Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 3/8 miles. There, Jordan Wycoff's Candy Flower and Moyglare Stud Farm's Beautiful Lover, both coming off stakes-placings in New York, battle Repole Stable's Always Shopping, the race's defending champion. A five-time stakes winner, twice at the graded level, Always Shopping is 3-1-0 in five starts on the grass at Gulfstream for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher. Gaffalione rides the 5-year-old Awesome Again mare, who races with blinkers off after wearing them for her last 10 starts. The sister race to the Janus, the Abundantia Stakes, wraps up the eight-race program Friday with a field of 11 fillies and mares sprinting five furlongs on grass. Stakes winners Introduced, Miss Auramet, and Miss J McKay are the race favorites. Both Miss Auramet and Miss J McKay come off allowance optional claiming wins, and Introduced was third in the Floral Park Stakes at Belmont Park in her most recent start. Colts Neck Stables' Introduced, trained by Jorge Duarte Jr., twice beat Miss Auramet in turf sprints this summer at Monmouth Park. Miss Auramet defeated Introduced there in the slop May 30.