Aqueduct: Sweet Reason gets through prep for Gazelle

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Sweet Reason did what she had to do to win her 3-year-old debut Friday at Aqueduct. Her connections hope it will set her up to do more in the Grade 2, $300,000 Gazelle Stakes here on April 5.

Sweet Reason, last year’s Grade 1 Spinaway winner, returned from a 125-day layoff to win a one-mile allowance race by one-half length over the pacesetting Aqua Regia. The race was her first since she finished fourth as the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies last Nov. 2.

Sweet Reason, a daughter of Street Sense, raced closer to the pace than she had done in her previous four starts and was floated four-to-five wide in the stretch. Under Irad Ortiz Jr., she came home in a respectable 23 seconds for her final quarter in covering a mile 1:40.11.

Sweet Reason was assigned a career-low 58 Beyer Speed Figure for the race.

On Saturday, Herbie Castillo, the former jockey who works as an exercise rider and assistant to trainer Leah Gyarmati, said Sweet Reason “came back great.”

“It was more of a workout,” Castillo said. “It was a good race. Her last quarter was impressive just for the fact she didn’t get a pace to run at and she had to take the overland route. It didn’t take a lot out of her and should set up her good for the Gazelle.”

On Friday, Gyarmati called it the perfect comeback race.

“If we are going to try to make the Gazelle you don’t want to come back off a long layoff and have her just lay it all out there and then have to run back in 30 days,” she said. “I kind of think this was perfect because it was well within her, [she] did it easily, it was a nice work, she learned something, she came back happy, and, hopefully, the next step will be a forward move instead of just a [lateral]move or a backwards move.”

Royal Lahaina retired

Royal Lahaina, winner of the Grade 2 Go for Wand here last November, has been retired from racing, owner Jimmy Riccio Sr. said on Friday.

Riccio, who claimed Royal Lahaina for $50,000 in April 2011, said that he wasn’t sure if he would sell her later this year as a broodmare prospect or breed her and then sell her in foal.

Royal Lahaina, a daughter of Chapel Royal, had a career record of 7-5-3 from 28 career starts and earned $536,830. Since winning the Go for Wand for trainer Todd Pletcher, Royal Lahaina raced three times, her final start being a fourth-place finish in the Top Flight.

“I think she did her thing. She overachieved,” Riccio said.

NYRA eliminates 9 positions

In a consolidation of departments that is part of the New York Racing Association management’s ongoing process to cut expenses, nine employees from the admissions, parking, and group sales departments were notified this week that their positions had been eliminated. The most notable name on the list was Jim Sibree, who was the assistant director of admissions and parking and had worked at NYRA for more than 30 years.

NYRA has moved its parking department to fall under the guest services umbrella while ticketing, admissions, and reserved seats now fall under the sales department umbrella.

Last month, NYRA eliminated the position of director of admissions and parking held by Jerry Davis.

At Wednesday’s reorganization board meeting, NYRA revealed it had lost $12.3 million from racing operations in 2013.