Aqueduct: Jacobson has two fillies for Busanda Stakes

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Twelve of trainer David Jacobson’s record-setting 164 wins on the New York Racing Association circuit in 2013 came in stakes races. In Saturday’s $100,000 Busanda for 3-year-old fillies at Aqueduct, Jacobson will take two shots at winning his first stakes of 2014.

In a seemingly wide-open renewal of the Busanda – won last year by four-time Grade 1 winner Princess of Sylmar – Jacobson sends out the uncoupled entry of Alpaca Fina and Derek’s Girl in the eight-horse field. The Busanda offers 17 qualifying points toward the Kentucky Oaks to the top four finishers (10-4-2-1).

Jacobson claimed Alpaca Fina for $50,000 for his primary client, Drawing Away Stable, out of a winning debut at Belmont on Sept. 20. After finishing third in the four-horse Sharp Cat Stakes, Alpaca Fina won a pair of optional-claiming races over Aqueduct’s main track. The second of those wins came going seven furlongs Dec. 5, when she rallied from next to last.

That performance, as well as Alpaca Fina’s pedigree – she’s by Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown and out of the Grade 2 route stakes-winning mare Ms Brookski – gives Jacobson confidence that his filly will stretch out to a mile and 70 yards.

“The way she’s been running, it appears she wants to go long, but you never know until you try, and this is the right spot to try it,” said Jacobson, who has Cornelio Velasquez to ride.

Jacobson also has Derek’s Girl, a horse whom Farnsworth Stables claimed for $30,000 out of a winning debut at Del Mar in August. She was sent to Jacobson, who saddled her to a third-place finish behind runaway winner Stopchargingmaria in the Grade 3 Tempted on Nov. 3.

David Cohen rides Derek’s Girl, a daughter of Brother Derek, from post 8.

Flipcup wheels back just 13 days after winning the East View Stakes for New York-bred juvenile fillies in her dirt debut. Flipcup earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 70 for her East View win, a figure that was in line with what she had been running on Woodbine’s synthetic surface earlier in the year.

“Sometimes if they don’t like the dirt, there’s a big difference in the figure they’ll run,” trainer George Weaver said. “I thought she made a lateral move speed figure-wise. She won by four lengths. It wasn’t like a hard-fought victory. She was just better than those fillies and got the job done.”

Camille Claudel ships up from Maryland for trainer Francis “Tres” Abbott coming off a 19-length maiden win going a one-turn mile at Laurel in her second start. That race was with blinkers and Lasix added following a 16 1/2-length debut loss at Parx Racing.

“Visually, it was impressive,” said Abbott, who vanned Camille Claudel up from the Fair Hill Training Center on Thursday morning to avoid the winter storm that canceled Friday’s Aqueduct card. “I don’t know what she beat. This is an exploratory trip.”

Trainer Todd Pletcher sends out the uncoupled entry of Fierce Boots and Spanish Gold, a maiden. Ketel Twist and Fleet of Gold complete the field.