How to bet the Game Face Stakes

A total of seven three-year-old fillies will dash six panels on the Gulfstream Park main surface in Saturday’s $100,000 Game Face S. Trainer Saffie Joseph has four of the fillies in the cast, and I’ll give a slight nod to one of his runners in the affair. #7 Late Night Text broke her maiden well last time out in her first run for the barn and received a nice slot on the outside of the sprint field. 

Game Face Wagers

• $10 exacta box 2-7 ($20)
• $4 exacta 7 with 1,2,3 ($12)
• 50-cent trifecta box 1,2,3,7 ($12)
• 50-cent superfecta 2,7 with 2,7 with 1,3 with all ($8)

The Into Mischief sophomore is out of a nice mare and could surely improve in her second run off the shelf while receiving a similar trip that she got last time. The Kentucky-bred bay faces a pretty big class hike in the tilt, but go-to pilot Micah Husbands will be in the silks and have the filly tracking the pace with intent from third or fourth in the early stages. 

Four-time stakes heroine #2 Lennilu is the class of the cast, and the Group-2 placed filly is a must-use in the heat. The gray daughter of Leinster exits a decent run on the Keeneland turf in the deep Limestone (G3) in her second run of the season and could peak third time back for Biancone. The Florida-bred gray is two-for-two on the dirt in her lifetime, and while I feel that she is better on the green, the sophomore is still too good to omit in a winnable spot. Jonathan Ocasio will be in the stirrups. 

Joseph’s #1 Maxitas is a wild card in the cast with just one run to her credit to date, but the $290,000 yearling purchase looked good in that unveiling and could be a nice prospect. By Maxfield, the Kentucky-bred was always traveling like a winner at Tampa Bay in her first showing, and she beat a decent filly who was more than six lengths clear of her nearest foe in the win. She might benefit from being inside as she will save ground throughout, and the win threat will have Miguel Vasquez in the silks. 

#3 Willow Case was well back in an allowance race in her juvenile finale, but the daughter of Neolithic had captured a pair of stakes wins in succession prior to that and comes in with some useful morning drills. The Florida-bred bay is three-for-five on the strip and will be in the mix late with her best performance. Diego Herrera inherits the mount.