Dwoskin brings ‘Joy’ into Saturday’s Golden Beach

Owner/trainer Steve Dwoskin’s Choose Joy, a multiple stakes-winning daughter of Munnings, is scheduled to carry highweight of 123 pounds in Saturday’s $60,000 Golden Beach, a five-furlong overnight handicap for fillies and mares, at Gulfstream Park.

The 6-year-old mare, who has never finished worse than second in seven career starts on turf, is set to make her third start back from a lengthy layoff. Prior to being sidelined for more than a year, Choose Joy was so dominant on turf that she was named 2021 Champion Older Female by the Florida HBPA, which also honored Dwoskin with its ‘Person of Distinction’ award for his contributions to racing as well as the community.

“She’s doing very good. We look for her to run well,” said Dwoskin, a long-time supporter of the University of Miami Health System’s Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, which houses the Dwoskin Proton Therapy Center. “She’s very easy to train, very nice. She does everything you ask her to do. I wish they all were like her.”

Choose Joy, who will concede between one and seven pounds to her nine rivals, made a highly promising return off the layoff when she lost a photo finish by a neck while running second in a five-furlong optional claiming allowance on turf March 2 at Gulfstream. She came back to finish off the board on dirt in her most recent start, for which Dwoskin tried an experiment.

“There won’t be turf racing in the summer, so I tried her back on dirt. When she was young, she won a race on the dirt in a pretty good time. I said, ‘Let me try, and I’ll have a place to run her if she likes the dirt,” Dwoskin said.