Charles Town: Stakes winners return from layoffs in Violet Handicap

Mike Montgomery

Bayonne, winning the Pink Ribbon last September, will make her first start since Nov. 22 in Tuesday night's Violet Handicap for fillies and mares.

Made to Love Her, winner of a $100,000 stakes in Southern California as a 2-year-old, and Bayonne, who captured the Pink Ribbon Stakes last fall, head a group of seven fillies and mares in Tuesday night’s $35,000 Violet Handicap at Charles Town.

Both the 4-year-old Made to Love Her, now based at Penn National with trainer Chuck Simon, and the locally based 5-year-old Bayonne come into Tuesday’s seven-furlong feature following layoffs.

Made to Love, who is 0 for 4 since winning the seven-furlong Moccasin at Betfair Hollywood Park in November 2011, got a freshening after finishing sixth of eight in the six-furlong What a Summer at Laurel Park on Jan. 12. From a limited sampling, Simon shows a 1-for-8 record (13 percent) with horses returning after a break of 31 to 60 days in races between 6 1/2 and seven furlongs.

Bayonne won three straight races during her 10-race campaign in 2012, capped by a one-length score from off the pace in the seven-furlong Pink Ribbon on Sept. 22. She was given a rest following a distant fifth-place finish in the one-mile Geisha at Laurel in late November.

Bayonne’s trainer, Jeff Cramer, is only 1 for 14 with runners returning from a layoff of 61 to 180 days in races at 6 1/2 or seven furlongs. Bayonne does show a best-of-14 half-mile breeze in 48.40 seconds for her comeback. The last time she returned after more than a month on the sidelines, Bayonne romped by 5  1/2 lengths in mid-July.

The two best last-race Beyer Speed Figures in the field belong to Dangerous Vixen (79) and T.M.’s Treasure (77).

The 4-year-old Dangerous Vixen has two wins and a second out of her last four starts, all going seven furlongs.

T.M.’s Treasure, a 6-year-old mare, was beaten 11 1/2 lengths by Dangerous Vixen two starts ago, but rebounded to run well when she rallied to get third, only a length behind runner-up Dangerous Vixen, on Jan. 12, the most recent start for both horses.

The winner of that race, Prize Winner, is also in Tuesday’s field. The Penn National-based Prize Winner regressed when she was asked to stretch out to 1 1/16 miles for the Nellie Morse at Laurel. She is 2 for 2 in her last two starts at seven furlongs to one mile.