Vekoma 3yos dominate Gulfstream stakes on New Year’s Day

Fresh off earning honors as the champion First-Crop sire of 2024, Vekoma kicked off the new year with a quartet of winners on the first day of 2025, topped by Five G and Mi Bago, who both won stakes at Gulfstream Park.

Five G, who narrowly missed winning the Tepin S. six weeks ago at Aqueduct, dominated Wednesday’s $165,000 Cash Run S., rolling to a nine-length victory in the one-mile contest for 3-year-old fillies.

Five G battled for the lead with Andrea through a half-mile in :46.74 before taking the top spot entering the turn. She was in hand around the bend while widening her lead to four lengths at the top of the stretch, then drew off from there to finish up in 1:38.11 on a fast main track.

“She worked very well on the dirt and when you’re trying to figure out what horses want to do and what’s best for them, you need to try things sometimes and she worked well enough on the dirt that we needed to try it,” winning trainer George Weaver said of the winner, whose two prior starts were on the grass.

“Obviously we’re happy, she likes the turf and the dirt. With that kind of performance, we’ll probably stick to the dirt now and try and get her on the Oaks trail.”

Five G is 2-1-0 in four starts and has earned $160,290 and is owned by her breeder Gatsas Stable LLC.

One race later on the card Mi Bago earned his third career stakes win in the $150,000 Dania Beach S., which was moved from the turf to the synthetic track. The bay colt led at every point of call in the 1 mile and 70 yard race, winning by three-quarters of a length.

“[Mark Casse’s assistant trainer] Nick [Tomlinson] didn’t give me too many instructions for the horse,” winning rider Edwin Gonzalez said. “Today I break out of the gate, he put me right there. He was pulling my arm, he wanted to keep going. I wanted to keep him in a nice and relaxed position, and he finished good. I think he’s a really good horse.”

Mi Bago, who won the Algonquin S. on Woodbine’s turf course and the Pulpit S. over the Gulfstream lawn last year, is now 4-0-0 in six starts and has earned $270,050 for owner Gary Barber. The bay colt was bred by Highclere, Inc.

Bella Cleopatra kicked off Vekoma’s Gulfstream trifecta with a sharp allowance win earlier on the card. Also trained by George Weaver, the stakes-placed filly was a comfortable 2 ½-length winner in the seven-furlong affair. A winner of two of her three starts, Bella Cleopatra is owned by Black Type Thoroughbreds, Swinbank Stables LLC, Steve Adkisson and Campeche Stables and was bred by Loren Nichols.