Aqueduct: Unbeaten filly Cluster of Stars retired

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Cluster of Stars, the undefeated and multiple graded stakes-winning New York-bred filly, has been retired from racing, her connections said Wednesday.

Cluster of Stars, who was training toward a start in the Grade 2, $300,000 Go for Wand at Aqueduct on Nov. 29, did not come back from her most recent workout on Nov. 11 satisfactory and the decision was made to stop on her.

“She retires as a sound broodmare and we didn’t feel she had to prove anything else,” Toby Sheets, the New York-based assistant to trainer Steve Asmussen said at Belmont Park. “She’s done enough. She will be missed.”

Cluster of Stars, a daughter of Greeley’s Galaxy owned by Harvey Weinstein’s Turtle Bird Stable, won all seven of her starts and earned $549,600. Her biggest victory came in the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom Handicap in September at Belmont Park, where she defeated, among others, Grade 1 winners Dance to Bristol and Dance Card. Her connections opted to skip the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint and instead ran in the $125,000 Iroquois Stakes for New York-breds, which Cluster of Stars won handily as the 1-9 favorite.

Earlier this year, Cluster of Stars won the Grade 2 Distaff at Aqueduct. Prior to that, Cluster of Stars won the Correction over Aqueduct’s inner track.

Cluster of Stars is out of the Honour and Glory mare Babyurthegreatest and was bred by Michael McPoland and Sean Finn.

Sheets said he and Weinstein are “checking out all our options” as far as breeding and/or selling Cluster of Stars.

Ria Antonia, Sweet Reason relaxing on farm

Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Ria Antonia and Sweet Reason, the fourth-place finisher from that race, are both getting a break at Hogan Equine, a farm in Cream Ridge, N.J., owned by equine veterinarian Patty Hogan.

Jeremiah Englehart, the trainer of Ria Antonia, said he planned to give his filly 30 days off before shipping her back to Belmont Park. Leah Gyarmati, trainer of Spinaway winner Sweet Reason, said her filly could get a break of four to six weeks.

Ron Paolucci, the owner of Ria Antonia, has expressed a desire to try and get his filly to the Kentucky Derby. Under the points system instituted by Churchill Downs last year, Ria Antonia would have to run against males in an attempt to earn points to qualify for the Derby, which means a race like the Withers at Aqueduct in February or the Gotham at Aqueduct in March could be possible targets.

Gyarmati said she has not yet plotted out a campaign for Sweet Reason that would ultimately get her to the Kentucky Oaks.

“It all depends how quickly she comes around and how much fitness she loses,” Gyarmati said.

Gyarmati also mentioned the weather as a factor in how quickly she can get Sweet Reason ready for her 3-year-old campaign.