First Dude

Full Brother to Mama Joyce Surpasses $100,000 with 4th Victory

    Icy Dude passed the $100,000 mark in earnings at Parx Racing yesterday, benefitting from a heady, rail-skimming ride by Jeremy Laprida, and becoming First Dude’s 14th winner of 2022.     Laprida took Icy Dude away in mid-pack on the inside and parked him there down the backstretch. He then picked off horses one

Here Comes Bullet Still Firing on All Cylinders at Gulfstream

    Like so many of First Dude’s runners before him whose speed figures have improved with age, Here Comes Bullet has fired his best shot at the age of five in his 17th start. The gelding bred by Thomas L. Croley posted an excellent 90 at Gulfstream Park yesterday, highest Equibase ‘E’ number of

Speedy Dudette Extends Winning Streak to 3 at Fair Grounds

    Speedy Dudette became First Dude’s biggest money-winner of the young season with a heart-stopping victory in a $54,000 allowance race at Fair Grounds yesterday. The 4-year-old filly bred in Louisiana by Bill Langford and Karen Keen has now won three in a row, and the $32,400 winner’s check raised her 2022 bank account

Famous Gent Lowers Gulfstream’s Tapeta Record for 5 1/2 Furlongs

    After the new Tapeta surface was installed at Gulfstream Park for the current meeting, the winner of the first race at each distance established a track record, however temporary. Ever since, the record at every distance has been lowered several times.    In yesterday’s seventh race, Famous Gent became the latest to own

February Report: First Dude Is on Fire

    First Dude’s red-hot February push continued yesterday with convincing scores by What’s Up Dude at Turfway Park and Neigh Dude at Laurel, giving Dude 11 winners since Jan. 1, while the amazing Sunset Paula Jo extended her unbelievable streak in Puerto Rico to seven victories in a row and nine of her last

Lady Milagro ‘Much the Best’ in Aqueduct Sprint

    Coming off a third-place finish in the Ruthless Stakes in her previous start, Lady Milagro was sent off as the 2-1 favorite yesterday in a $55,000 starter optional claimer at Aqueduct. Based on the way the 3-year-old First Dude filly handled the field, 1/2 would have been a more logical price.  With Eric

Double Diamond Stallions Celebrate Banner Day at Gulfstream

    Gulfstream Park has many named important programs on its Championship Meet schedule – Florida Derby Day, Pegasus World Cup Day, Fountain of Youth Day, and several more. Yesterday could easily have been named Double Diamond Farm Stallions Day.     On Gulfstream’s nine-race program, three races were won by runners by Double Diamond

Sunset Paula Jo Extends Victory Streak to 6

    If Sunset Paula Jo had been competing in New York or California for the past year, and had recorded her current record, she would have her name listed high up on First Dude’s growing roster of runners who have earned $200,000 and up, probably around half a million dollars.     But the

Valiant Virtue Returns at Tampa With a Flourish

    Juan Arriagada, the owner and trainer of Valiant Virtue, has to be congratulated for the excellent job he did with the 5-year-old son of First Dude, who returned from a layoff of nearly 13 months to win the third race at Tampa Bay Downs yesterday in a virtual breeze.     In his

Like the Energizer Bunny, Ragatagtag Just Keeps Running

    Although owners and trainers love to be blessed with a barnful of stakes and allowance runners, every so often a claimer comes along who endears itself to everybody in the barn in various ways, especially by making numerous visits to the winner’s circle and paying his or her own way.     Ragatagtag,