Aqueduct notes: Ullapool headed to Gulfstream

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Ullapool, dominant winner of Saturday’s $100,000 Garland of Roses Stakes, will head to south Florida this week and make her next start in the $150,000 Florida Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Sprint at Gulfstream on Jan. 18, trainer Eddie Kenneally said Monday.

The Florida Sunshine Millions is a series of races restricted to Florida-breds.

Ullapool won the Garland of Roses by two lengths, running six furlongs in 1:11.03 and earning a 95 Beyer Speed Figure for the performance. She is 2 for 2 this year and has won her last three starts dating back to September 2012.

“She’s doing well right now, and I think the timing of the race is ideal also,” Kenneally said by phone from Florida. “If there are suitable races for her at six furlongs, I’m going to focus on those races.”

One day after winning the Garland of Roses, Kenneally won Sunday’s co-feature at Aqueduct, a $79,000 second-level allowance, with Cougar Ridge, who rallied from last to win by 1 1/2 lengths, earning a career-best 93 Beyer Speed Figure in the process. Cougar Ridge, a 3-year-old gelding by Johannesburg, is now 2 for 2 on dirt after racing on turf and synthetic.

Kenneally said Cougar Ridge would be part of a large contingent he planned to keep in New York this winter with assistant Leonard Dunne. Kenneally did not identify a spot for Cougar Ridge, but a race like the $100,000 Evening Attire on Jan. 18 would seem logical.

Kenneally went 6 for 33 last winter here and hopes to do even better this winter with what he hopes is a “little stronger group this year than last year,” he said.