Aqueduct: Kid Kate, Mildly Offensive set for snow-delayed rematch

Barbara D. Livingston

Kid Kate comes off a win in the Classy Mirage at Belmont Park.

After a delay brought about by last week’s nor’easter, Kid Kate and Mildly Offensive are set to renew hostilities in Thursday’s $75,000 Pentelis overnight stakes, a 6 1/2-furlong sprint that was snowed out Nov. 8.

Relocated to Saratoga after finishing off the board in the A Gleam Stakes on Hollywood Park’s Cushion Track, Mildly Offensive withstood a duel through torrid fractions in the Big Bambu Stakes first out for Todd Pletcher. “Those were some fast fractions – that’s kind of her game,” he said.

Kid Kate, a half-length short of Mildly Offensive upstate, comes off a win in the Classy Mirage at Belmont Park. The durable 5-year-old mare has won six stakes and over $450,000, and makes her first Aqueduct appearance since a third in the 2011 Distaff.

“The good thing about her is I can point and shoot anywhere,” said trainer Chad Brown. “As long as the competition is right, she gives me the same race every time.”

Curlina, My Wandy’s Girl, and Winnie Dixie all were re-entered in the Pentelis, which picked up an additional starter in Enchante. Enchante makes her first start since June. Her trainer, Rudy Rodriguez, is off to a meet-leading 7-for-14 start.

Curlina was purchased for less than $20,000 in December 2010 by Team Power Play Racing and won four races in a row, all for trainer Gary Gullo – a streak that ended with a runner-up finish in the Grade 2 Vagrancy. She was sidelined for over a year by injury and sickness after a fifth in the Bed O’Roses, and returned with an inconclusive performance as the favorite in a second-level allowance at Parx Racing on Sept. 18, when she stopped after forcing the pace.

“The track was like a beach, and she just didn’t like it,” said Lewis Mongullezzo, a scout for the Ottawa Senators whose Team Power Play outfit campaigned the good turf sprinter Second in Command and has won four races in New York this year with Classic R and B. “Curlina is an interesting mare. She’s working terrific, and Gary’s done a great job with her.”

My Wandy’s Girl, a 3-year-old filly purchased in Ocala, Fla., last year, returns to the mainland after winning 13 of 17 starts at Camarero Race Park in Puerto Rico.

“This is a stepping-stone to get her going again – she missed some training because of the weather,” said new trainer Mike Hushion. “The point is to get her going long again, because there aren’t many around like that.”

My Wandy’s Girl was 8 for 8 around two turns at Camarero, a one-mile oval with dimensions similar to Aqueduct’s inner dirt track.

The inner track traditionally opens the Wednesday after Cigar Mile weekend, but the current condition book lists a number of races at 6 1/2 and seven furlongs through Dec. 9, which suggests a potentially later opening.

“It all depends on the weather, just like last spring when we opened up the main track early,” said Glen Kozak, vice president of facilities and racing surfaces for the New York Racing Association. “It gives us some flexibility to stay [on the main] if the weather’s right.”

A field of six to eight is taking shape for Saturday’s $150,000 Discovery, the last graded stakes of the season for 3-year-old males.

Likely starters for the Grade 3 race at 1 1/8 miles are Adirondack King, Called to Serve, Colony Strike, Saratoga Snacks, Stephanoatsee, and Willy Beamin.

Our Entourage and Souper Speedy are possible starters, according to NYRA’s stakes coordinator, Andrew Byrnes.