US expert Tom Collins has four strong fancies for Friday's Gulfstream Park card

Golden Pal
6.34 Gulfstream Park
2pts win

Love Nest
7.07 Gulfstream Park
1pt win

Garner State Park
7.39 Gulfstream Park
2pts win

Shippy
9.46 Gulfstream Park
1pt win

Early season two-year-old contests at the big US tracks are often dominated by a small selection of trainers, and number one on that list would be Wesley Ward.

Normally based in California, Ward relocates some of his team to Florida for the winter months and likes to target the first few juvenile races to get his potential Royal Ascot runners ready to strike come June.

He is represented by newcomer Golden Pal in the $65,000 maiden special weight (6.34) contest on Gulfstream Park's Friday card.

Bought for $325,000 as a yearling in September by owners Ranlo Investment LLC, who had a lot of success with talented mare and the dam of Golden Pal, Lady Shipman, back in 2015-16, Golden Pal is a son of Uncle Mo (Champagne Stakes and Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner) so has every chance of being very precocious.

He has already earned rave reviews from his trainer, who has mentioned him as a potential Royal Ascot sort if he comes through this test in good order.

Golden Pal's works have been above average, especially his latest 4f turf breeze at Palm Meadows Training Centre, where he clocked the joint-second-fastest time of 51 horse.

The fastest that day was Stormy Nelly, who has won her last two races over the minimum trip at Gulfstream, while the others to clock the same time as Golden Pal were Hey Dakota (Group 3 winner) and Mintd (1-1 since moving to the US from Willie McCreery's yard).

Everything points to a huge performance on his debut and it wouldn't be surprising to see him backed off the boards, with Tyler Gaffalione's presence in the saddle rating just another positive.

The following $17,000 claimer (7.07) isn't the best quality race you will ever see, but the 6-1 morning line price about Love Nest is far too big to ignore.

He represents unfashionable connections in trainer Rasharn Creque and rider Hector Berrios, but Love Nest's recent outings give him a huge chance of going close from a nice draw in stall three.

Formerly with Michael Maker, among other top trainers, Love Nest has racked up five wins from 22 starts in his career, all of which came in a five-month spell between April and September last year.

He has had five starts since the last of those victories but has dropped back down the grades recently and his runner-up finish behind Il Faraone in January caught the eye.

Love Nest was sent off the 5-2 second favourite but was badly bumped at the gates and almost had his back legs taken. However, he regathered his stride quickly and surged on the outside to take the lead down the backstraight, pushing clear when four-wide entering the straight. He looked all over the winner before being run down late by a well-rated rival.

He was badly bumped again at a crucial stage entering the straight last time and gave way after, so he had a viable excuse of a poor finishing position, and he can make amends with a clearer run.

Trainer Todd Pletcher has a stack of good chances on the Gulfstream card but his best at the odds might be Garner State Park, who makes her second start in the $19,000 maiden claimer (7.39).

By Lea, who won a Grade 1 at this track before finishing third in the 2015 Dubai World Cup, Garner State Park showed signs of inexperience on debut and is sure to improve.

She broke slowest of the ten-runner field and was forced to race in rear, but made a big mid-race move and looked like challenging before being forced five-wide off the final bend.

Garner State Park stuck on well under pressure but is the type to improve a bundle for that effort and Luis Saez will look to be more aggressive from the gates this time.

The final selection is the George Weaver-trained Shippy in the feature $46,000 allowance optional claimer (9.46).

A small filly with an abundance of speed in her pedigree, Shippy was a typical sharp juvenile last year and following an easy Laurel Park debut success, Weaver decided to pitch her into Group company.

She ran a screamer when unable to lead from an inside post in the Grade 3 Schuylerville Stakes at Saratoga in July, where she finished a close-up third, before performing creditably once again (fifth) in the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes in September.

Shippy hasn't been seen since but Weaver proved he can get talented sorts back to the track in good order when Vekoma won on his return last month and hopefully he can do the same with this filly, who has a good draw to go forward.

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