Ami's Flatter targets Marine Stakes

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Queen’s Plate winter-book favorite Ami’s Flatter has not raced since finishing third in the Grade 1 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park on March 28 and likely will make his next start in the Grade 3 Marine Stakes at Woodbine next Saturday, trainer Josie Carroll said.

Ami’s Flatter made four starts in Florida over the winter after winning his career debut at Woodbine on Nov. 9. He finished second in the Mucho Macho Man Stakes at Gulfstream on Jan. 3 and then was sent to Tampa Bay Downs, where he finished fourth in the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis Stakes on Jan. 31. In his two most recent starts, he placed in a pair of Kentucky Derby prep races, finishing second in the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby on March 7 and third in the Florida Derby.

Ami’s Flatter earned enough points to make the Kentucky Derby starting gate, but Carroll and Ivan Dalos, the owner and breeder of Ami’s Flatter, opted to return to Woodbine to point toward the Queen’s Plate instead.

“It was really Mr. Dalos’s decision,” Carroll said. “He said he only wanted to go to the Kentucky Derby if we had a live horse. He didn’t just want to see his colors there. It looked like a particularly tough year for the Derby, and this horse maybe isn’t at that stage yet. He really wasn’t quite ready to take those horses on.”

Carroll said Ami’s Flatter has been training well at Woodbine since returning from Florida, and he most recently breezed five furlongs in 1:01.40 over the Polytrack here April 30.

“He trains well over this surface,” she said. “He’s improving all of the time. He’s just taken a while to get to that stage of running against the toughest horses.”

Decision Day still on Plate trail

Decision Day finished a disappointing fifth in his local 2015 debut in the Wando Stakes on April 19 but is still on the Queen’s Plate trail and could start in the Marine Stakes, Carroll said.

Carroll said she had no explanation for Decision Day’s performance in the Wando, which came after a troubled seventh-place finish in the Grade 3 Palm Beach Stakes on turf at Gulfstream Park on March 7, when he was beaten just three lengths and earned a 71 Beyer Speed Figure.

“I was terribly disappointed with him, and I really have no explanation for [Decision Day’s performance in the Wando],” Carroll said. “He threw a bad race. We loved the way he was training for the race. We loved him that day, and we thought he was going to run a great race, and he just threw a bad one.”

Carroll said Decision Day has trained well since the Wando and is still a Queen’s Plate hopeful.

“We breezed him the other day, and he breezed great, so we may also run him in the Marine,” she said. “I don’t think you can throw him to the wolves after one race.”