Owner toasts Treasure Beach filly’s Gulfstream score

For the first six starts of her career, Renzo A. Bontempo’s Spiced Rum Punch raced once a month in South Florida for trainer Marcus Vitali with one second-place finish to show for her efforts. The 4-year-old daughter of Treasure Beach then went to the sidelines for more than six months, returning at Gulfstream Park yesterday for a race at “about” 7 1/2 furlongs on the turf, and now in the barn of Kathy Mongeon.

Whatever transpired during the vacation worked wonders, because Spiced Rum Punch looked like a new horse under Cristian Torres, sprinting to the finish line two lengths in front. She broke first, but Torres took her back to fifth, about five lengths off the pace heading down the backstretch. When he let her loose coming to the turn, Spiced Rum Punch inhaled the leaders while three wide en route to her maiden-breaking victory, worth $11,600 to her owner.

Treasure Beach now has 27 winners in 2019 and is $80,000 away from his second straight million-dollar season.