Bella Sofia can jump-start Rudy's meet
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Bella Sofia will look to keep her hot streak going while hoping to end trainer Rudy Rodriguez’s cold start at the meet when she starts as an expected odds-on favorite in Wednesday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Honorable Miss Handicap at Saratoga.
Bella Sofia, who will face just three rivals, is going for her third straight stakes win to start the year. Bella Sofia, who won the Grade 1 Test here last summer, has this year won the Grade 3 Vagrancy and Grade 2 Bed o’ Roses during the Belmont Park summer meet. Since the Bed o’ Roses on June 10, Rodriguez has won just one race, and began the Saratoga meet 0 for 22.
The connections of Bella Sofia had two primary objectives for her this year – the Ballerina here on Aug. 28 and the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on Nov. 5 at Keeneland.
By design, Bella Sofia didn’t get her year started until May when she narrowly beat Frank’s Rockette by a nose in the Vagrancy. She was an easier winner of the Bed o’ Roses, though the margin over Obligatory was only a half-length.
“I don’t think the races take too much out of her,” Rodriguez said. “I know the first race was a little hard for her, but I don’t think we had her ready to go. I think the last race was easy.”
Regarding the Bed o’ Roses, Rodriguez said jockey Luis Saez told him “I don’t even want to make her change leads, I just let her be on her own and if I asked her maybe she would give me a little more.’ ”
Bella Sofia, who breaks from post 2, is the 125-pound highweight, spotting two pounds to Kimari, four to Frank’s Rockette, and eight to Amadevil.
Frank’s Rockette gave Bella Sofia all she could handle in the Vagrancy, putting her head in front in the stretch, only to lose by a bob.
“We had very little excuse,” said Bill Mott, trainer of Frank’s Rockette. “The other filly’s a good filly, she gets right up there and is like catch me if you can. Our filly’s doing great.”
Flavien Prat rides Frank’s Rockette from the rail.
Frank’s Rockette won the Grade 2 Prioress in September 2020. In 2019, she finished second in both the Grade 2 Adirondack and Grade 1 Spinaway.
Kimari, the Grade 1 Madison winner in 2021, seems to have gone off form for trainer Wesley Ward. She finished third in this year’s Madison and fifth in the Derby City Distaff.
Amadevil has won 7 of 8 starts, six of those wins coming against Ohio-breds for trainer David Wolochuk. This will be her first start in a graded stakes.
With only four horses, the Honorable Miss goes as race 4 on a 10-race card.