Melvis Gonzalez is a 7-pound apprentice currently riding at Gulfstream Park, where so many youngsters have kicked off what later turned out to be highly successful careers. But the 24-year-old graduate of the Panama jockey’s school            looked like an old veteran winning a mile and one sixteenth test over the Tapeta surface with Grandma’s Pudding.

    Grandma’s Pudding is a 5-year-old mare by First Dude, bred by Ocala’s Jacks or Better Farm, and Gonzalez’s first winning ride came last May at Gulfstream on Jacks or Better’s Awesome Wind.

     Leaving the gate, Grandma’s Pudding parked herself in the two path, glued to 11-1 shot Love My Job, and the two raced together all the way into the stretch, where the First Dude mare drew off to win by two lengths, clocked in 1:43.85. She paid $9.20 and added $13,800 to her bank account, which now stands at $87,060. She sports a record of 3-3-4 in 25 starts.