Parranda All Set for Marshua's River Stakes

Parranda is ready to run, and that should come as bad news to her nine rivals in the $150,000 Marshua's River Stakes (gr. IIIT) Jan. 10 at Gulfstream Park.

Purchased for $800,000 at the 2014 Fasig-Tipton November sale by The China Horse Club after finishing sixth in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (gr. IT) Nov. 1 at Santa Anita Park, Parranda was being prepared for a start in February's China Equine Cultural Festival in Singapore but is ready to start now, according to trainer Christophe Clement.

"Since she has been with me, I think she has been doing very well," Clement said. "She had a bit of a break in November—we just gave her a break when she first came in—and she has been working very well since I brought her back, and I'm actually pretty excited to run her.

"The China Horse Club wanted her to compete in February in the race at Singapore, but the filly's training so well that I think she'll run at Gulfstream first and can go on from there."

In 2014 Parranda won the $150,000 Florida Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf Stakes and the $150,000 Suwannee River Stakes (gr. IIIT) both on Gulfstream's turf course for trainer Rodolfo Garcia. Following that start, the 6-year-old daughter of English Channel   was purchased by a group that included Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer and was sent to race in California.

On the West Coast, Parranda won the $100,000 Wilshire Stakes (gr. IIIT) and $200,000 Royal Heroine (gr. IIT) stakes at Santa Anita and became grade I stakes-placed in the Clement L. Hirsch and Rodeo Drive. After finishing second in the Rodeo Drive, Parranda earned a chance to compete in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf, in which she finished sixth.

Parranda was two-for-three at Gulfstream in 2014 and has posted six total wins at the track, including her career debut in 2012, a race in which she started for a claiming price of just $65,000—$735,000 less than her sale price two years later.

"She's a very classy mare," Clement said. "I wish I had her a year ago. When she trains, when she works, she just looks like a classy horse."

Parranda is the 123-pound starting high weight in the 1 1/16 grass race along with Strike Charmer, who won two of five starts in 2014: an allowance race at Churchill Downs May 25 and the $119,700 Cardinal Handicap (gr. IIIT), also at Churchill, on Nov. 22.

The Marshua's River will be run as race eight with a post-time of 4:03 p.m. EST.