Belmont: My Miss Aurelia resurfaces in Punkin Pie

ELMONT, N.Y. – Typically, at this time of year, My Miss Aurelia is gearing up for a start in a Breeders’ Cup race, with the possibility of a divisional championship in the balance.

This has not been a typical year for My Miss Aurelia, an Eclipse Award champion, three-time Grade 1 winner, and earner of more than $2.4 million.

Thus, one week before the 30th Breeders’ Cup will be run in Southern California, My Miss Aurelia – the BC Juvenile Fillies winner and champion 2-year-old filly of 2011 – will be running in an overnight stakes at Belmont Park as she tops a five-horse field entered in Thursday’s $100,000 Punkin Pie Stakes at seven furlongs.

Originally scheduled to be run last Friday, the race was delayed until there were enough entries for it to be carded. Classic Point, who ran third in an optional claiming race on Oct. 17, became the fifth horse to enter.

My Miss Aurelia, who finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic last year, has not run since finishing third in the Grade 3 Azeri Stakes at Oaklawn Park in March. She came out of the race with some physical issues – an injured foot being chief among them – and was sent to the farm.

Back then, My Miss Aurelia was trained by Steve Asmussen and owned in partnership by Stonestreet Stables and George Bolton, whose mother, Aurelia, is the filly’s namesake. In the summer, the filly was moved to trainer Todd Pletcher and, just recently, Stonestreet purchased Bolton’s interest in the filly.

Though there aren’t any major races for My Miss Aurelia to make this year, her connections want to see how she performs in this race and presumably the Grade 2 Go for Wand at Aqueduct on Nov. 29 with the idea of possibly racing her again in 2014.

“That’s part of why she’s here and why she’s making a start at this time of year, to see where she is and sort of plan what she’s going to do moving forward,” Pletcher said.

Pletcher said My Miss Aurelia has shown no ill effects from previous infirmities in her training, and he’s eager to see how she runs on Thursday.

“We’re happy to get her started, she’s trained very well, a very professional, straight-forward filly,” Pletcher said. “We just hope she runs as well as she always has.”

John Velazquez will ride My Miss Aurelia for the first time, breaking from post 5 under high weight of 123 pounds.

There appears little in this field that should be able to challenge My Miss Aurelia if she’s even half of her former self.

Classic Point did come within a neck of upsetting Dance to Bristol in the Grade 2 Honorable Miss at Saratoga and does have the speed to be a factor. She gets seven pounds from My Miss Aurelia.

Galloping Giraffe, also trained by Pletcher, figures to sit back and make a late run under Rajiv Maragh, perhaps completing an all-Pletcher exacta.

Promise Me a Cat, who has finished third in four stakes such as this, and Crespano complete the field.

The Punkin Pie goes as race 6 on a 10-race card that also includes $100,000 Island Sun Stakes for 2-year-old New York-breds on the turf and the $100,000 Basket Weave for 3-year-olds, also on the turf.