Aussie Girl ends layoff with return to turf in Noble Damsel
?q=100)
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – After a failed dirt experiment and some time off for bone bruising, Aussie Girl returns to the races and to turf in a seemingly wide-open renewal of the $150,000 Noble Damsel Stakes on Sunday at Aqueduct.
In three turf starts in the United States in 2024, Aussie Girl sandwiched a third-level allowance win at Keeneland between a sixth in the Ladies Turf Sprint at Kentucky Downs and a ninth-place finish in the Grade 1 Matriarch at Del Mar
Impressed with the way she breezed on dirt, trainer Will Walden ran her in the Heavenly Prize Stakes at Aqueduct in February where she finished a well-beaten fourth, just missing third by a nose.
Walden said Aussie Girl needed time off for bone bruising out of that race and that she has a steady work tab leading to her return.
“She’s training as good as she trained up to the spot at Keeneland,” Walden said.
In discussing her race in the Matriarch, where she was ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr. and was beaten four lengths by Sacred Wish, Walden said “Irad said she never relaxed. She laid in second, I think those Europeans you got to park them behind another horse. You can’t go heads up with them.”
Dylan Davis rides Aussie Girl from post 2 in the one-mile Noble Damsel.
A wild card in the Noble Damsel is Coni Fizz, an Argentine-bred mare who went 6 for 8 in her native country, though just one of those wins came on turf. Catherine Toner is the advisor for the Argentine ownership group La Generacion, and her father, trainer Jimmy Toner, will send out the filly for the first time.
“We’re trying to find out where we’re at,” said Jimmy Toner, a two-time winner of this race. “She’s done everything we’ve asked her to do so far since she’s been here. I think this is the way to go.”
Edict, another Argentine-bred mare, has made eight starts in the U.S. Most recently, Edict finished second in the Athenia Stakes, a race in which she relaxed behind horses as opposed to racing on the lead which she did in two stakes at Saratoga where she was well beaten.
Trainer David Donk explained that Edict got too wound in the Saratoga paddock and found the quiet of Aqueduct more to her liking.
Sparkle Blue, a 6-year-old daughter of Hard Spun trained by Graham Motion, is a five-time stakes winner, including the Hillsborough at Tampa Bay Downs in 2024. She’s coming off a second-place finish in the One Dreamer Stakes at Kentucky Downs where she found herself on the lead.
“I thought she ran super,” Motion said. “Kind of weird because she ended up on the lead . . . A horse came to her and she actually fought back.”
Feather Boa, a South African-bred, finished a fast-closing second in a six-furlong allowance in September 2024 off a 10-month layoff. Sunday, she makes her first start in 13 months as trainer Todd Pletcher stretches her out to a mile.
Tax Implications, trained by six-time Noble Damsel winner Chad Brown, comes in off a second-level allowance win at Saratoga on Aug. 29. Prior to that, she was beaten in the same condition in July by Proctor Street, who won an allowance race at Keeneland on Thursday.
The Noble Damsel goes as race 7 on a nine-race card that begins at 1:10 p.m. and includes the $150,000 Autumn Days and the $150,000 Carle Place, rescheduled after the Oct. 11 card was canceled due to inclement weather.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.