11 Going In 7 Furlong Gr. 2 Best Flight
The Best Flight ******************************************** STAKES RECORD: 1:21 1/5 (2011) K’s Broken Dream Owner: Wrecks Stables ******************************************** (1) WAKE THE PREACHER (KY) (22 — 6-4-2) Earnings: $331,033 6 YO Mare Owner: Irisharse Stables Odds: 6/1 Irisharse Stables sends out Wake The Preacher, a six year old daughter of Mr. Greeley, who’s looking to get back on the winning track here in New York this weekend. Back in April, she just missed by a 1/4 of a length in the Grade 2 Unthinkable, a 7-furlong stakes in New Hampshire. She went on a pretty nice run after that, finishing in the top three in her next four starts, topped off by a huge score in the $300,000 7-furlong Grade 2 Breeders’ Bowl Distaff Cap in Maryland. She popped a 109 speed figure there. In her last two efforts, Wake The Preacher turned in a couple of rather dull efforts in the Grade 2 Long Island Sprint and the Grade 1 Humane Distaff on Bluegrass Derby day in Kentucky. She raced against a few of these in Kentucky that day, mares and fillies she’ll be facing here in New York this weekend. She likes to lay pretty close to the early pace before she pounces late, and if she can stay close here, Wake The Preacher has what it takes to get it done against this bunch. That will be the key for her here, though–staying in touch with the early pacesetters. If she can lay close early, breaking out of the #1 hole here, she can win this race. In her last race, that Grade 1 Humane Distaff, it was only the second time in her last 11 starts she didn’t pop a triple digit speed figure. Look for her to bounce back here and get back to throwing the kinds of speed numbers she’s capable of throwing. The rail should help her a lot here. (2) WILL CONQUER (KY) (34 — 14-9-3) Earnings: $673,280 6 YO Mare Owner: The Empire Odds: ***4/1*** Your 4/1 morning line fav here is Will Conquer, who comes from The Empire Stables. Lenny’s six year old Bernardini mare looks like the class of this bunch. She’s got the breeding, the speed figures, and the class–and she’s definitely got the recent speed figures to do some major damage here. She’s thrown speed figures of 108, 107 and 106 in her last three outings, but she hasn’t won since November, when she caught a listed stakes field in Argentina late to score there. Of course, you have to remember, she went on the shelf after that start, taking the winter off. So the fact that she hasn’t won since last November isn’t really a big deal, considering she’s only had four starts since then, all coming after her winter break. She, too, ran in Kentucky on Bluegrass Derby day, in the Grade 1 Humane Distaff, finishing fourth there, beaten four lengths. She’s a scratch-breeding, with Mr. Prospector and Nijinsky II back there in her pedigree. Will Conquer is making her 35th career start here in New York this weekend, and she’s got a little over $670,000 in career earnings. You have to go all the way back to March of 2010 to find the last time she actually won in graded company. So it’s been a while for the mare from The Empire Stables. Can she get back into winning form against this bunch? That’s the question for Lenny and Will Conquer. Back class suggests she can, and her speed figures have been on the rise lately, although they’re nowhere near what she was throwing back in 2011–probably her finest year in the speed figure department. She’s getting on in years, and she likes to come from slightly off the pace in most of her starts. (3) SQUIDGY (KY) (49 — 14-11-3) Earnings: $237,318 7 YO Mare Owner: Tees (Whisper) Stables Odds: 7/1 Tees (Whisper) Stables sends out the seven year old Squidgy, another scratch-breeding like your favorite Will Conquer. Squidgy is making career start number 50 here, and believe it or not, this is her first try in graded company. She ran in a listed stakes once, way back in 2008, in her fourth career start. She’s never raced against a field of this caliber, but she has had some pretty sweet triple digit races lately that suggest she can at least contend with this bunch. She threw 100+ speed figures in six of her last seven starts, all of those in allowance company. Her last three starts were open allowances, and the daughter of Saarland comes in here off a four-race winning streak. This seven furlongs might be a tad short for her this weekend, since she likes to lay back early in her races, and come on with a strong late push late. She has been doing really well at 7.5 furlongs, but in her seven furlong starts lately, she has just been getting up at the wire late to win. Her question is class. An allowance mare up against a field of listed and graded stakes winners. But she’s been winning lately, and it’s hard to say if she can run with this bunch. How she does here could well determine if she stays in graded company or hits the allowance trail once again after this weekend. Tees Stables probably wouldn’t be racing her here, if he didn’t think she had at least a chance of doing well in this spot. Still, we’d like to see her in a bit longer race than this seven furlong stakes in New York. She needs to keep a bit closer to the early leaders than she has been, if she’s going to contend with this bunch. (4) THE BATTLE IS WON (KY) (7 — 3-1-0) Earnings: $62,595 4 YO Mare Owner: Eminc Stables Odds: 14/1 The longest shot in the field in New York this weekend comes from Eminc Stables. The Battle Is Won is 14/1 here, and at first glance, you might think she’s really up against it here this weekend. She has some fairly nice speed figures coming in here, but she’s only making her eighth career start this weekend. She’s a four year old daughter of Medaglia D’Oro out of Brave Birdie, a Green Desert mare. She’s won three of her seven career starts so far, including her first stakes win ever last time out, when she won the 7-furlong listed stakes Cuffaro Cat G Dirt Mare Dash, in Washington state. She’s making the cross-country trek here to New York this weekend, to find out if she really belongs with this bunch. Even though she is 14/1 here, look at her last race. She popped a huge 108 speed figure there, and she simply made that field look silly. She jumped out to a huge lead and won geared down at the end, and that makes that 108 speed figure all the more impressive. Not a whole lot of other starts here to go on, with The Battle Is Won, but that last one is enough to tell us she belongs with this bunch. If she can bounce out to a pretty big lead early, she just might make this Grade 2 Best Flight her graded coming out party in New York this weekend. (5) ROCKCHUCKER (KY) (21 — 7-2-3) Earnings: $492,304 4 YO Mare Owner: East Coast Reins Odds: 10/1 East Coast Reins Stables sends out Rockchucker, a four year old daughter of A.P. Indy, who looked early on in her career like she was going to make some noise on the Bluegrass Oaks trail a couple years back when she first started racing. She won a couple of huge graded events, including the Grade 1 Darley, as a two year old, and the whispers started. She figured to be a real monster in the race to the Oaks last season. Then came a series of disastrous starts leading up to a 15th place finish in last year’s Bluegrass Oaks. Frankster has tried everything with this filly since then–turf routes, turf sprints, everything he could think of to get her back on the winning track. But that tough, late two year old/early three year old campaign took its toll on Rockchucker. And she really didn’t start responding until January of this season, when she simply crushed an allowance field in a 6.5 furlong dirt sprint, and she threw her first 100+ speed figure in the process. Since then, she’s been top three in all four of her starts, including a win at a mile last time out in an allowance event. Two starts back, Rockchucker popped big–a 107 speed figure–her career high, when she finished second in a big money allowance event down in Florida. She’ll like this seven furlongs this weekend, her first try at this distance since the second start of her career. She comes from far back in her races, so this extra half furlong from two starts back makes sense here. If Rockchucker can get a couple of these early burners involved in a speed duel up front, she might just swoop in late here and take it all home for Frankster. That’s the key for her. How much early pace can she get to run at late? (6) EXPIATION (KY) (36 — 5-9-8) Earnings: $146,527 6 YO Mare Owner: Shamrock Stables Odds: 11/1 Shamrock Stables is sending out the six year old Cryptclearance mare, Expiation, here in New York this weekend. Expiation is making career start number 37 here, and she has been around a while. Expiation hasn’t seen graded company since September of 2010, when she finished second in the 6 furlong Grade 3 Iodine Handicap in Delaware. Since then, it’s been nothing but listed stakes and allowances, and Expiation has been doing pretty well in that type of company. She’s finished top three in her last five starts, including a couple of very short listed stakes the last two times out where she just got nipped at the wire after being on or near the lead the first three calls. She’s blessed with a ton of early speed, so you can look for Expiation to be one of those on the front end early, trying to take this field gate to wire. She looks like she’ll be hot for the first five or six furlongs, but seven furlongs might be a bit long for her connections to ask her to hold on to the lead this weekend. She’s only got two 100+ speed figures in her last seven starts, so that’s a bit of a worry, too, for Shamrock Stables. (7) SMARTY’S REEF (KY) (17 — 7-2-5) Earnings: $193,816 4 YO Mare Owner: Rocket22 Stables Odds: 5/1 Smarty’s Reef is a four year old daughter of Smarty Jones, and she’s a scratch-bred who has Distorted Humor and Mill Reef back there in her pedigree. You would think this girl wants to go much longer than the sprints, but she’s been on a triple digit speed figure tear since August of last year. This is career start number 18 for her, and she will absolutely love the seven furlongs she’ll see here this weekend. Her last six starts have all come at this distance, and she has been doing quite well, especially since she started topping the 100 mark in the speed figure department. She has won five of her last six starts coming in here, and two starts back, she popped a whopper of a race in her first stakes attempt. She showed up down in Louisiana, where all she did was blow out a monster 113 speed figure number while winning the 7-furlong Grey Ice Dirt Mare Challenge. She took a couple months off from the races after that, and last time out, Smarty’s Reef warmed up for her first graded stakes race ever this weekend with a pretty easy score in the 7-furlong Sophie’s Choice Dirt Mare Sprint. After a two-month layoff, that was pretty impressive, and if that was just a warm-up, imagine what she’s capable of this weekend. If she can run anywhere near that number she threw two starts back in that Louisiana listed stakes win, look out. Smarty’s Reef can definitely run with this bunch. Throw out the fact that this is her first graded start. She has shown she has the natural talent to run with this bunch. Early speed here, and lots of it. She has been on the lead for the first three calls of her last 11 starts, so watch for this one to pop out early and head for the front. Very dangerous entry here. Watch out for Smarty’s Reef in her first graded start. (8) HEY CUTIE (IND) (24 — 10-5-5) Earnings: $387,241 4 YO Mare Owner: Next Bonus Racing Odds: 11/1 There are only three non Kentucky-breds in this field, and this is the first of them. The Indiana-bred entry from Nextbonus Racing is the four year old daughter of Marcus Andronicus, Hey Cutie. She’s out of a Capote mare, and she has Kingmambo back there in her pedigree, too. Hey Cutie has only 24 career starts, but she has won ten of them. She has spent much of her career bouncing back and forth between the turf and the dirt. And with Capote back there in that pedigree, naturally she loves the off going. Ten of her 24 career starts have come on turf or dirt tracks in less than optimum conditions, and she has finished top three in nine of those starts. She’ll catch a fast track here in New York this weekend, and that’s too bad, because if this track were sloppy, I would say, here’s your winner, hands down–no matter what her odds are. She just loves the off tracks that much, it’s quite plain to see. She comes in here off a string of races where she has run on the turf in five or her last six starts. And she doesn’t have a whole lot of triple digit speed figures coming in here–just three of those in her last nine starts. She had a dismal effort three starts back in her last stakes try–a mile on the turf in Montana. She took some time off since that race, and she’s slowly working her way back to form. Last time out, she ran six furlongs on the turf in a big money allowance event out west in Utah. She ran the six furlongs in 1:09 4/5 that day and just smoked that field. Now she’s back on thedirt, running with a pretty impressive bunch here. Does she have the class to run with these. We’d love to see buckets of rain come down on the New York track this weekend to really be able to endorse her chances here, but that rain won’t be coming. One thing to remember if you’re betting the exotics is that Bill’s mare has finished in the top three in 20 of her 24 starts so far, so she might be a good play in your trifectas. At 11/1, that might make for a pretty hot trifecta pay off. (9) VEIL OF SECRECY (AUS) (26 — 5-2-5) Earnings: $113,343 5 YO Mare Owner: Billy2shoe Stables Odds: 7/1 The Aussie-bred Veil Of Secrecy owned by Billy2Shoes Stables started off her career overseas way back in 2010. She broke her maiden first time out, and she spent quite a bit of her early career bouncing back and forth between turf and dirt. It really wasn’t until she came to America, though, before she found the dirt was really her true calling. She’s a daughter of Encosta De Lago, and she has a couple of pretty regal names back there in that scratch-bred pedigree of hers–Distorted Humor and Kingmambo. It really wasn’t until October of last season that she started popping the century mark in the speed figure department. She has got six triple digit speed figure races in her last eight starts, and she has been seeing a lot of listed stakes action. She has been consistently picking up checks in most of those starts, but she has had quite a bit of trouble popping into the top three recently. This is only her second graded start of her career this weekend, when she ships into New York. In her first try against graded company, she ran fifth in the 6.5 furlong Grade 3 Hurricane Ben Handicap down in Florida. That was back in February. She has the numbers to run with this bunch, that’s for sure, and she is fairly consistent, when it comes to picking up a check in her races. But this is going to be a tough bunch for her to deal with here this weekend. It’s probably the best group she’s faced so far. Last time out, in Indiana, she did pop a 106 speed figure there, so that bodes well for her chances here. She’ll have to do a bit better than that to win here, but she should be around late to pick up the pieces. (10) CRIBLIA (KY) (27 — 13-1-4) Earnings: $427,649 4 YO Mare Owner: Rafa Stables Odds: 7/1 Criblia is a four year old daughter of Tapit, whose scratch breeding includes Relaunch and Nashua. She has got some pretty impressive speed figures coming in here to the Best Flight Stakes this weekend. She saw a lot of graded action as a two year old when it looked like she was going to be a pretty solid Bluegrass Oaks campaigner, but then a string of races where she just couldn’t get the distance saw her return to the sprints. She’s one of a few in here who has seen any real graded action lately. And she’s the only one who comes in here off a graded win, in fact. That came last time out when she won the Grade 2 Vagabond Handicap right here in New York. That race was a 6.5 furlong event, but that’s okay, because the extra half furlong here shouldn’t make a great deal of difference for the mare from Rafa Stables. What’s nice to see on Criblia’s past performance charts is that she has been steadily climbing in the speed figure department. That win in the Vagabond last time out was her career-high, as far as speed figures go (106), and that was not an easy bunch she faced there. She likes to track the leaders, laying just off the pace, something you’ll probably see her do here this weekend. There are quite a few speed burners in this field, and if Criblia doesn’t get sucked into a speed duel, she might just take home this trophy here in New York. She’s a mare who is on the improve, and I like her chances here a lot. If she can avoid the early speed trap that a few of these are likely to set here, she should be the one to beat. She has won five or her last seven since she returned to the dirt, and that is pretty impressive. She’s also got 13 wins in her 27 career starts, so she has been super consistent. One to watch here closely. (11) BONE AND MUSCLE (AUS) (24 — 7-4-3) Earnings: $185,102 4 YO Mare Owner: Broohar Stables Odds: 11/1 Bone And Muscle is one of two Aussie-breds in this race, and this one from Broohar Stables is a four year old daughter of Sebring, who is out of the Storm Cat mare La Stormy. She started her career racing as a two year old back in late 2010, but it has only been recently that she has started throwing triple digit speed figures and running in graded company. In fact, her last three times out, she has been in graded company in Ontario and New York. Last time out she ran in that Grade 2 Vagabond Handicap here in New York with Criblia, who she’ll face here this weekend. Bone And Muscle finished fourth there, but she was coming on strong late that day. That’s pretty much her style, to run four or five lengths back of the leaders before she makes her move, and since each of those last three graded efforts were shorter than the seven furlongs she’ll see here in New York, we should see a drastic improvement in her performance. She has a bit more ground to work with here, and that can only improve her chances here. She’s looking to hit the top three in graded stakes company for the first time ever, and that extra distance she’ll see this weekend could be just the X factor that puts her over the top. Plus, let’s not forget, there’s a ton of early pace here to her inside for her to run at late, and that will give her a much better shot at winning here. You might want to throw Bone And Muscle in a few of your betting tickets, because it looks like she’ll love this distance.
Grade II
Distance: Seven furlongs (or 7/8 Of One Mile, or About 1400 Metres)
Surface: Fast Dirt
Purse: $150,000 ($90,000 To The Winner)
Conditions: Fillies and Mares, 3 Years Old And Up