HALLANDALE BEACH - As good as Arindel homebred Mythical has been through her first season of racing – three stakes wins, one over the boys, one in a Gr. III and the best Beyer Speed Figure of any 2-year-old filly in 2025 – her connections are even more excited about what is still in front of her.

    Mythical will take another step toward reaching that potential when she tries two turns for the first time while looking to keep her perfect local record intact in Saturday’s $300,000 My Dear Girl at Gulfstream Park.

    The My Dear Girl for fillies, and the $300,000 In Reality, each going 1 1/16 miles, co-headline an 11-race program that concludes the 44th edition of the $1.2 million Florida Sire Stakes series for 2-year-olds by accredited Florida stallions.

    Trained by Jorge Delgado, Mythical indicated her ability early on and translated that into her April 17 unveiling at Gulfstream, where she romped by 8 ½ lengths in front-running fashion sprinting 4 ½ furlongs in :51.37 seconds.

    “Amazingly, she’s been one of those horses that from the first time you saw her she showed you how good she is,” Delgado said. “She’s been showing signs of getting better, which is very exciting. She’s been good so far, but it looks like she can get really good.”

    Mythical spent the summer with Delgado’s northern string at Monmouth Park and raced three times at Saratoga, beating males by 3 ½ lengths in the 5 ½-furlong Tremont on Belmont Stakes weekend and earning a 93 Beyer. Back against fillies for the 6 ½-furlong, Gr. III Adirondack four weeks later, she cruised by 3 ¼ lengths, leading again from gate to wire.

    Stretched out to seven furlongs for the Gr. I Spinaway, Mythical dueled for the lead but faded to be fifth behind two-time Gr. 1 winner Tommy Jo. Delgado brought her back to Gulfstream for the FSS Susan’s Girl, also at seven-eighths, which marked her first time facing fellow state-breds.

    “She had a little bit of class relief last time,” Delgado said. “She had a very busy summer in Saratoga. She won against the boys, then she won the graded-stakes and then she ran in the Grade 1. She needed some time to come back and do less.”

    Under regular rider Emisael Jaramillo, up for each of her races, Mythical showed a new dimension by settling off the pace early before taking command after a half-mile and powering home a 12 ¾-length winner as the 2-5 favorite.

    “She was ready for the race, and she loves this track,” Delgado said. “She’s been doing better and better every day. We’re excited to see how she does around two turns and what we can do with her from there.”

    Mythical has breezed three times since the Susan’s Girl, most recently going four furlongs in :49.46 seconds Nov. 22. Jaramillo returns to ride from Post 3 at topweight of 122 pounds, two to four pounds more than her rivals.

    “We have confidence that she’ll be fine,” Delgado said of the two-turn test. “Every gallop and every race she’s been showing that she should have no problem doing that, but it’s not until the races when you really find out.”

    While not looking past the My Dear Girl, Arindel and Delgado would like to see Mythical show enough to keep her on track to what they hope is a start in the Kentucky Oaks next spring. During Gulfstream’s 2025-2026 Championship Meet, the Jan. 31, Gr. III Forward Gal, Feb. 28, Gr. II Davona Dale and March 28, Gr. II Gulfstream Park Oaks all award points toward the Kentucky Oaks.

    “Hopefully we can go to the Oaks. I think that’s a goal we have in the back of our minds,” Delgado said. “We want to find a race where we can get some points here, but we are focusing on this race first.”

    Delgado said Mythical has a special nickname around the barn, one inspired by the filly that won the 2024 Oaks – one of her seven career Gr. 1 victories – en route to Horse of the Year honors.

    “We are calling her the little Thorpedo Anna,” Delgado said. “We’ll see. She’s a very talented horse but she also has a very good mind and I think that’s what matters in the end.”

    MyRacehorse, Thoroughbred Acquisition Group and Miller Racing’s Love Like Lucy is the only horse in the field to have run in the previous two legs of the FSS filly series, finishing third to multiple stakes-winner and English Group 2-placed Lennilu in the six-furlong Desert Vixe and a distant second behind Mythical in the Susan’s Girl. Love Like Lucy’s debut victory came over a pair of next-out winners – twice stakes-placed Vita Mia and William Law Jr. homebred Lady Chance, runner-up in the Juvenile Fillies Sprint and who returns in the My Dear Girl.

    Bayou Brigid, owned by Sea Warrior Stables and trainer Heather Smullen, is entered to make her dirt debut after four races on turf and one on Gulfstream’s all-weather Tapeta course. She is the only horse with two-turn experience – graduating on Aug. 8 going a mile and 70 yards on the synthetic, finishing sixth in the 1 1/16-mile P. G. Johnson on Aug. 27 at Saratoga and running third in the one-mile Our Dear Peggy on Oct. 25 at Gulfstream.

    Completing the field are Mary Lightner-owned and trained Dare Greatly, fourth in the Susan’s Girl, and Robert Cotran’s maiden Win Bet Only.

    HALLANDALE BEACH - On the cusp of his annual sojourn to Gulfstream Park for its prestigious Championship Meet and approaching a 30th year of riding professionally in the United States, Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano has no shortage of sources for inspiration.

    There’s the looming milestone of 6,000 career wins, now less than 100 away; the never-ending search for a promising newly turned 3-year-old and the prestige of competing with the best collection of riders assembled at a winter race meet.

    Then, there’s family. Brady, his only son and the youngest of Castellano’s three children with wife, Abby, is starting to recognize dad’s cool job and how much he has accomplished in the game. And for the first time, the Venezuela native has partnered since early this month with his brother-in-law, Kevin Meyocks, to work as his agent.

    “It’s exciting, because Kevin always tried to help me in the winter in South Florida the last two or three years,” Castellano said. “My son, he’s 13 and getting to the age where he’s starting to pay attention. He’ll say, ‘Daddy, what horses are you riding?’ He wants to see me at the high level, and it motivates me more when your children and your family look up to you and they’re excited when you win races.

    “I still have that fire, that motivation to win races, especially at Gulfstream. It’s the Championship Meet with all the best jockeys. All the top riders in the country end up in South Florida. It’s the best feeling in the world when you’re competing with them. Where better to be in the wintertime than South Florida and Gulfstream Park? All jockeys dream of wanting to compete there at that level,” he added. “I just turned 48 and I’m not ready to retire. The biggest advantage of our sport is as long as you can do it, you can continue. I’m very fortunate to be in great condition. I feel good and I’ve been training good to be ready for the races.”

    Castellano will be on hand Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 27, for the opening of the 2025-2026 Championship Meet, his earliest arrival since being in the midst of five consecutive leading rider titles from 2011-2012 to 2015-2016. Irad Ortiz Jr., who broke Castellano’s single-season record with 140 wins in 2020-2021, surpassed his overall record by leading the jockey standings for a sixth time last winter and will be favored to add a seventh.

    The opening day program has Castellano named in five of eight races for five different trainers including Brad Cox-trained debut winner Amberglen in the $100,000 Wait a While for 2-year-old fillies scheduled at 7 ½ furlongs on the turf.

    “We decided to go the first weekend and start from the beginning,” Castellano said. “The last few years I stayed in New York and then [went] later on, spend Christmas with my family. But the kids are getting older, they are having activities at school and we decided I might as well go early and start getting momentum, start getting business and looking for the right horses.”

    The year-round partnership has seen Castellano off to a strong start with Meyocks, who also has the jockey’s book in New York. Their first weekend together they won the Nov. 8 Hill Prince (G3) for Sackatoga Stable and trainer Barclay Tagg with Tiz Dashing, Castellano’s seventh graded-stakes triumph this year. The following weekend, he won the Key Cents on George Weaver-trained She’s Country and was third in the Notebook aboard Funny Factor.

    Meyocks also represents Emisael Jaramillo at Gulfstream. The opportunity to add Castellano came about when the agent’s other local rider, Cipriano Gil, relocated to Tampa Bay Downs for the winter. In late summer Meyocks picked up the book for Kentucky-based Francisco Arietta, who is returning to make his title defense at Oaklawn Park.

    “Everything has started falling in the right direction, and who better than Kevin. He lives in Florida and he knows a lot of people and he’s a great guy. Not just because he’s my brother-in-law; everybody likes Kevin. He likes joking around with people. He’s got a big sense of humor,” Castellano said. “I know how he works. He has a lot of connections, he knows a lot of people and we’re looking forward to it.”

    Castellano averaged 114 wins during his time atop the Championship Meet standings with a then-record high of 132 in 2013-2014. Except for his first winter of 2004 and 2020-2021, when injuries and the coronavirus pandemic limited him to just 66 starts, Castellano has topped $1 million in purse earnings. Last winter, he had 25 wins and a meet bankroll of $1.35 million.

    Fellow Hall of Famer Jerry Bailey (2000-03) and Castellano (2013-16) are the only jockeys to win the Eclipse Award as champion jockey four consecutive years. A total of 21 riders have won 6,000 or more races; Castellano sits at 5,910 and counting. His career earnings of more than $413 million are second only to another active Hall of Famer, soon-to-be 54-year-old John Velazquez, who also calls the Championship Meet his winter home.

    “I love my job,” Castellano said. “It seems to me every stage in your life is a challenge. When you are in the beginning of your career, you work hard because you’ve got to make your name to get to that high level of competition. You want to be there. Then when you’re at the high level, you have to work double because you want to maintain your place. You have to be demanding and work hard.

    “I’m past the first stage and I’m past the second stage. I won four Eclipse Awards, almost five. I won the Kentucky Derby, two Preakness, the Belmont Stakes, 12 Breeders’ Cup races and seven Travers, which is unbelievable. I’m still competing at the high level and the high competition with the best jockeys in the country” he added. “I feel like it’s not ending. No way. I think I have five years ahead. That’s my goal. I feel great. I’m looking forward to the opportunities. I’m still hungry.”

    Winner of the 2006 and 2017 Preakness (G1), Castellano completed his personal Triple Crown in 2023 with wins in the Kentucky Derby (G1) and Belmont (G1) respectively aboard Mage and Arcangelo, two horses he rode during the winter that helped reestablish Castellano after some lean years. Mage was fourth with Castellano in the Fountain of Youth (G2), two starts prior to the Derby, and he was aboard Arcangelo for four straight wins starting with his Gulfstream graduation and continuing with the Peter Pan (G3) and Travers (G1).

    “A couple years ago I can’t believe I won the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes. Those two horses I found in South Florida at Gulfstream Park,” Castellano said. “I rode Mage over there and then Arcangelo, I broke his maiden. I ended up winning two Triple Crown races the same year. It’s amazing.”

    Gulfstream’s series of stakes for 3-year-olds starts with the Mucho Macho Man Jan. 3 and continues with the Holy Bull (G3) Jan. 31 and Fountain of Youth Feb. 28 leading up to the Florida Derby (G1) March 28. The Florida Derby has produced 47 starters that have gone on to win a remarkable 63 Triple Crown races – 26 in the Kentucky Derby, 19 in the Preakness and 18 in the Belmont.

    “I look forward to riding the young horses of the new generation. That’s what keeps you excited and motivated, looking for the nice 3-year-olds in January,” he added. “The Holy Bull, the Fountain of Youth, the Florida Derby – that’s more motivation [for] me to continue and have success at the high level."

    HALLANDALE BEACH - Peachtree Stable homebred Spirit Doll, dominant in her grass debut last month, is among seven last-out winners and one of three entries from four-time defending Championship Meet leading trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. in the $100,000 Wait a While on Thursday’s opening day program at Gulfstream Park.

    The eight-race Thanksgiving Day holiday program has a special post time of 11:15 a.m.

    For 2-year-old fillies on Gulfstream’s newly refreshed turf course, the 7 ½-furlong Wait a While going two turns is the first of 68 stakes, 27 graded, worth $15.2 million in purses during an 84-day Championship Meet that runs through March 29.

    Spirit Doll, by Tiz the Law, graduated in debut sprinting six furlongs Aug. 7 at Saratoga, where she next endured a troubled trip finishing sixth in the seven-furlong Spinaway (G1). Joseph brought her back to Florida, stretched her out to a mile and put her on the turf for the Oct. 25 Our Dear Peggy, where she came from off the pace to win by 6 ¼ widening lengths.

    “I ran her back quick in the Spinaway but I actually thought she was going to be competitive in that and she didn’t run. I think it was just too quick after the first race,” Joseph said. “She was very impressive the other day and I feel she goes in there, in my opinion, a deserving favorite.

    Spirit Doll drew Post 7 with jockey Edgard Zayas at topweight of 122 pounds and is rated the 5-2 second choice on the morning line.

    “She has grass pedigree from the dam [Pakhet] and the Tiz the Laws have run on the grass,” Joseph said. “You’re just kind of hoping she takes to the grass but you never envision that kind of performance, especially the way she quickened. I thought it was very, very impressive so the future is very bright for her.”

    Averill Racing’s R Slew of Cash (12-1) already owns a win at the course and distance, graduating by 1 ¼ lengths on the same card as Spirit Doll’s stakes victory. She pressed the early pace in her one-mile unveiling before fading to eighth Sept. 4 at Kentucky Downs.

    "I thought at Kentucky Downs she ran a good race. She looked like she was going to run good and she got tired,” Joseph said. “Last time she tracked and she quickened nicely. It’s the right race for her. I think the distance is ideal, but she’ll have to show she’s good enough. She’s going to need to improve to be competitive but I think she is eligible to improve.” Micah Husbands, up for the maiden win, rides back from Post 3.

    C2 Racing Stable, BAG Racing Stables, Barry Fowler, Charles Deters and Mark Taylor’s Day to Day (12-1) is winless in three tries since joining Joseph over the summer with one grass start, beaten 5 ½ lengths when eighth in the 1 1/16-mile Miss Grillo (G2) Oct. 4 at Aqueduct. Fourth in the Spinaway, she has Edwin Gonzlaez named to ride from Post 8.

    “Her grass race wasn’t that bad in the Miss Grillo. She broke well and then kind of lost position and ended up out wide and kind of ran even,” Joseph said. “We’re going to decide closer to the race if we’re going to run.”

    The 2-1 program favorite for the Wait a While is Woodslane Farm homebred Sister Troienne (Post 5), the Brian Lynch trainee that joins Spirit Doll and French import Special Wood as two-time winners in the field. Sister Troienne, by Munnings, has won back-to-back starts since being moved to the turf by eight combined lengths, the latter around two turns, and will have the services of regular Kentucky-based rider dual Derby-winning jockey Mario Gutierrez.

    Brody Racing’s Devilish Grin (20-1) is another horse with stakes experience, having run third in the Aug. 27 P.G. Johnson at Saratoga third time out before graduating in an Oct. 4 maiden optional claimer at Aqueduct, both going 1 1/16 miles. JSM Equine’s Haute Diva (10-1) has three seconds from five starts with a lone win coming at one mile Sept. 27 on the Gulfstream turf.

    Both Amberglen and Slippers step up to stakes company off impressive debut victories. Stonestreet Stables’ Irish-bred Amberglen (Post 1, 8-1) overcame somewhat of a slow start to rally for a three-quarter-length triumph Oct. 23 going one mile on the Keeneland turf for trainer Brad Cox. Following the race she was sent to South Florida where she shows three breezes at Payson Park.

    DJ Stable’s Slippers (Post 4, 9-2) fetched $225,000 as a yearling last fall and didn’t launch her career for more than a year, rallying for a popular three-length maiden special weight triumph sprinting five furlongs Oct. 18 on the Gulfstream turf.

    “She had always shown talent,” DJ’s Jon Green said. “She was a little slower developing than the rest of the group. Thankfully, the way [Hall of Fame trainer] Mark Casse has his farm set up, they can go in tranches so she didn’t have to get rushed or get ahead of where she was mentally. But once she put it together at the farm, it took her the matter of a month or two before she really started showing it on the racetrack.

    “So, going into that first race we were pretty confident,” he added. “Mark is a two-time Hall of Famer. He doesn’t do too much to get a horse ready first time out because as he likes to say, he’s training a horse for its career not its maiden win. Whenever we win first time out it is kind of a pleasant surprise, but we were pretty confident that she had talent going into that first race.”

    Slippers has breezed twice over the all-weather Tapeta course since her race, and will have Miguel Vasquez back in the irons.

    “We’re going against winners and winners that have run two turns, so it’s a little different scenario than her first asking,” Green said, “but she’s also had that first experience, she’s a little more mature, and we don’t have to ship her anywhere. For all intents and purposes the majority of the field is in the same boat as we are … a-other-than allowance types running for black-type on opening day.”

    Casse also entered Lighthouse Racing’s Backgammon (Post 9, 30-1), a front-running maiden winner going one mile Oct. 18 at Keeneland in her fifth start. Completing the field are Special Wood (Post 10, 20-1), making her North American debut after winning two of three starts in her native France; and the also-eligible Girvana (Post 11, 30-1).