Five races into the Pegasus card at Gulfstream, not seeing anything like a serious bias on turf or dirt. Two dirt races, both one-turn maidens, won by an outside pace-presser and a horse that stalked along the rail most of the trip before coming two to three paths wide to make a winning run into the homestretch.

It's mainly business as usual - Todd Pletcher winning maiden-special-weight races, Chad Brown winning turf stakes. Pletcher the last two years at Gulfstream has won 56 maiden-special-weights. Fifty-six! In two years! That's a lot of maiden wins. You'll lose money betting them blindly, however - even though his strike rate in such races is a strong 25-percent, the ROI is just $1.56.

Life's A Parlay was Pletcher's second MSW winner on the card, getting into what looked like a speed duel with Travelling Midas before putting that for away and, though tiring, holding off a late run from Personal Time. I said "looked like a speed duel" because no fractions were posted for the race, nor was a final time, but the top two opened a large lead on all the others, and it's a decent guess they were rolling. Life's A Parlay had been third to Cove Blue and Orbed in his debut, getting a 71 Beyer Speed Figure. He's by Uncle Mo and out of Mir Cat, by Tale of the Cat, and on pedigree and running style I'd wonder how effective he'd be at distances longer than one mile.

Pletcher got his first maiden-special winner of the day when Amertume, a Wertheimer et Frere (think Goldikova) homebred by Tapit saved ground stalking a modest tempo, came out at the quarter pole, and finished quite well to get up. He ran 1 1/16 miles on grass in 1:43.55, while Neepawa, in just-completed race 5, a split of the same race, went 1:44.08. That Amertume got the better final time off a slower half-mile split (49.54 to 49.35), and the fact he was first out, suggests he might be a 3yo turf horse to watch this spring.

If Pletcher maidens are business as usual at Gulfstream, Chad Brown-trained filly-and-mare stakes winners are business as usual all over North America. Texting got her first stakes win in the Grade 3 La Prevoyante, race 3, while becoming Brown's 42nd filly-and-mare graded-turf-stakes winner over the last two years. That is a hefty, hefty haul, but again, while Brown has a tremendous 25-percent strike rate in such races, his ROI doesn't beat win takeout at $1.77. Not sure how strong this La Prevoyante was. Also not sure what Apple Betty had done to be a 4/5 shot here, but she had zero spark after stalking on the outside as Texting, yet another stakes winner for the red-hot Candy Ride, paid a relatively generous $16.60. This was Texting's second start over a distance as long as 1 1/2 miles and she runs like a horse that can go even farther than that.

It's possible Cache is the early-card winner that we'll be talking about most as winter turns to spring - possible. the filly got absolutely crushed in the wagering, going off at 6/5 while making her career debut for trainer Mark Hennig, and she made the workout reporters look smart. Folks talk about a horse doing everything right - Cache did everything right. She sat on the rail and took dirt with no issue, was always on the bridle for jockey Javier Castellano, and gave him instant acceleration when he tipped her out past the quarter pole. Off fracions os 22.54, 46.08, and 1:11.56, Cache ran seven furlongs in 1:24.60, though we'll need to wait to put that clocking in context. Cache, given her apparently relaxed approach, should stretch out. She's by Distorted Humor and out of the Giant's Causeway mare Wait Til Dawn. Her female family generally is very strong, and her dam apparenty was such a route horse that she made her debut in a two-turn race and never sprinted.