US expert Tom Collins with two selections to follow on Thursday

Gioielli
9.07 Gulfstream Park
1pt win

Grand Air
9.20 Golden Gate Fields
2pts win

Domestic racing has bitten the dust in Britain and France, but the show goes on Stateside, albeit several tracks are hosting their meetings behind closed doors as the Coronavirus pandemic continues.

We are treated to several competitive cards across the country with Gulfstream's early evening fixture ranking as the showcase meeting, and the feature $44,000 allowance optional claimer (9.07) represents an interesting punting opportunity.

Six runners are set to go to post but there is plenty of quality in the line-up with numerous top connections represented, including trainer Todd Pletcher and jockey Johnny Velazquez, who team up with Gioielli.

This five-year-old mare has been lightly raced in her career, with just seven runs to her name and only three since August 2018, but Pletcher has been messing about with her trip since breaking her maiden in a course-and-distance contest almost two years ago and a much better effort is expected here.

Pletcher's young horses often tend to improve for experience but Gioielli looked talented in three maiden special weight races to get her career underway (all over between 6f and 6½f on dirt) and won at the third time of asking in impressive fashion.

It wasn't much of a race but she could only beat what was against her that day and the third has subsequently landed a weak maiden claimer at Tampa.

Connections obviously believed she'd benefit for a step up in trip as she was tried over 7½f on her next outing in allowance optional claiming company, and she led for the majority of the way before tiring in the stretch.

Gioielli then had 15 months off the track and clearly needed her run in November 2018 when a distant last after showing early pace. Since then she has made three appearances on turf, recording form figures of 633 in this company.

Her penultimate effort was decent (she showed up for a long way over 5f), while she was just outstayed after looking the likely winner last time over a mile, which is clearly further than she wants to go.

The key to her is the fact she returns to dirt and her ideal distance of 6f, while her post position in stall one should allow her to gain an early advantage on a track where the bias is towards those who make the pace.

An uncontested lead looks on the cards and she can provide Pletcher, who heads the top trainer leaderboard at Gulfstream, with a 42nd winner of the meeting.

Another trainer who is dominating at his local track is Jonathan Wong, who has recorded 49 winners from 172 runners at Golden Gate Fields since the meet started on December 26, which is more than double the tally of second-placed Isidro Tamayo.

He has a couple of strong chances on the card but his best opportunity lies with Grand Air, who is partnered by Silvio Amador in the $14,000 6f claimer (9.20).

The five-year-old has plenty of early zip and will undoubtedly be on the front end from the word go – an all-the-way success is more likely than not.

He has faced pace pressure on his most recent outings and was actually beaten by the reopposing Diction three starts back, but Grand Air broke terribly that day and had to be rousted to make the front.

He battled gamely in a duel before eventually giving best in the final furlong, but I fully expect him to reverse that form given a better break in what looks a match race between the pacesetters.

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