Aqueduct: Baby J and Ullapool hook up in Garland of Roses

The two with the best early speed in Saturday’s $100,000 Garland of Roses Stakes are 3-year-old Baby J and 4-year-old Ullapool, the pacesetters in the last two renewals of the Grade 1 Test Stakes. But as they go head to head in this six-furlong dash for fillies and mares, they may look around and wonder why they’re not nine miles down the road at Belmont Park, where they are stabled and where they have posted all nine of their combined victories.

Baby J won her debut as a 2-year-old at Belmont, but lost three subsequent stakes starts the rest of the year. She returned at Belmont’s spring meet for new trainer Pat Reynolds and won two of three starts, highlighted by a come-again score in the Grade 3 Victory Ride Stakes.
“She’s a free-running filly, and it worked out,” Reynolds said.
After setting the pace in the Test and fading in the stretch, she rebounded to win the Catinca overnight stakes at Belmont, where she is 4-1-0 in six starts.

Since finishing off the board in her 2011 debut as a juvenile, Ullapool has won five consecutive starts at Belmont over the past three seasons while never headed. However, she developed a lung issue last fall and has raced only once this year, when she returned from nearly 11 months on the sidelines to win a second-level allowance race on Oct. 17, earning a 94 Beyer Speed Figure.

“She got pretty sick, had to go to the farm for a long time to recuperate,” explained trainer Eddie Kenneally. “It took forever to turn it around. She trains really, really strong, all of her works are very quick and she does it easy, but you got to be surprised she won so impressively off a long layoff. Hopefully, she can do something similar on Saturday.”

Ullapool has finished in the money only once in six starts away from Belmont, and, like Baby J, has never raced at Aqueduct.
“She hasn’t run on that track,” Kenneally said. “I have no idea how she’s going to handle that. It’s not the same as Belmont. She loves Belmont.”

Two fillies that do like Aqueduct are Miss Mischief and My Wandy’s Girl.

Two starts after winning a Saratoga allowance race for former trainer Tony Dutrow, Miss Mischief added blinkers for new trainer Steve Asmussen and romped to a six-length win in the restricted Pearl City overnight stakes here Nov. 20.

My Wandy’s Girl won 13 races in Puerto Rico before winning the Pentelis overnight stakes in her United States debut for Mike Hushion here last fall. She was third in the Gazelle nine days later, and earlier this year finished a close second as the favorite in both the Barbara Fritchie and Ruffian handicaps, both Grade 2 events.

Delightful Quality, a Darley Stable homebred trained by Tom Albertrani, has finished in the money in all 10 of her starts, including a third in last year’s Garland of Roses. Conkate and Crespano complete the field.