Choose Joy Newest Stakes Winner for Munnings

Choose Joy (4f Munnings x Elegantly, by Arch) won her fourth career start and first stakes on Sunday with a 1 ¼ length win in the Golden Beach Handicap at Gulfstream Park.

Choose Joy made herself work for it in the five furlong race when she broke just half a step slow and raced in last. Stuck behind horses, Jockey Miguel Vasquez decided to take her wide in the turn and circle the field to put his filly in a competitive position. That was just the thing she needed to pick up another gear and start picking off horses.

Flying up the center of the track, Choose Joy took command inside the final sixteenth and continued pulling away to have over a length on the former leaders in the end. Owned and trained by Steven Dwoskin, the filly has now finished in the top two in five of nine starts for nearly $120,000 in earnings.

Choose Joy was bred by Colts Neck Stables out of the Arch mare Elegantly.

Elegantly is a half-sister to Grade II winner and Grade I placer Casino Host and the dam of multiple stakes winner Black Ops. Elegantly’s granddam is Grade I Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Desert Stormer, who is also the granddam of dual Grade I winner Better Lucky and Grade III winner Estihdaaf.

Munnings’ nine stakes winners in 2021 is good enough for third among all North American stallions with his 14 stakes performers putting him in fifth.