Aqueduct: Talented stablemates try to stretch out in Monday allowance feature

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Saturday Bliss and Saratoga Shoes both looked good going short in debut wins one-week apart in January. But trainer George Weaver and his owners want to find out sooner rather than later about the distance capabilities of both fillies.

So, instead of running them back in a sprint race for 3-year-old New York-bred fillies – there was one both were eligible to run in on Sunday – both Saturday Bliss and Saratoga Shoes are entered in a $57,000 first-level allowance race going a mile and 70 yard around two turns Monday at Aqueduct. Saturday Bliss and Saratoga Shoes run uncoupled.

As fate would have it, a winter storm predicted to begin early Sunday evening and last through Monday could put the day’s card in jeopardy of being run, thus postponing the experiment.

“I feel good about both of them,” Weaver, who is part-owner of Saturday Bliss along with R and H Stable, said by phone from Florida. “It would be aggravating if the weather interferes. Both ownership groups want to answer the distance question earlier rather than later.”

On Jan. 25, Saturday Bliss won her debut going six furlongs by 11 3/4 lengths, going gate to wire. She ran six furlongs in 1:11.34 and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 76. A week earlier, Saratoga Shoes won her debut in front-running fashion by 4 3/4 lengths, covering 5 1/2 furlongs over a “good” inner track in 1:07.59 and earning a modest 50 Beyer.

“I can’t really separate them,” Weaver said. “One might have won a little flashier than the other, but that might have been a product of the track being different. Neither one surprised us.”

Both fillies have the pedigree to suggest they can handle the stretch out. Saturday Bliss is a daughter of Any Given Saturday out of a Miswaki mare. She widened her advantage at every call of her debut and will likely use her speed while breaking from the rail under Chris DeCarlo.

Saratoga Shoes is by Noonmark out of the Commendable mare Soft Shoe Dancer. Saratoga Shoes, owned by Sovereign Stable, is a half-sister to Bwana Babe, who won around two turns over the inner track in 2011. Abel Castellano rides Saratoga Shoes from post 7.

Storied Lady and Mlle. Minuit are already proven at a distance. Storied Lady, a daughter of Read the Footnotes trained by John Hertler, won a one-mile maiden race here on Jan .19 in her third career start. She gets the services of leading apprentice Taylor Rice.

Mlle. Minuit, a daughter of Midnight Lute trained by Kathleen Feron, won a one-mile maiden race at Belmont in October. She finished last in the Grade 2 Demoiselle before finishing third in the East View.

Molly the Freud, G Note, Jen’s Miracle, and Underthemoonlight complete the field.