Belmont Park: Shuvee graduates head Sky Beauty

ELMONT, N.Y. – Happy Week and R Betty Graybull, who finished third and fifth in the Grade 2 Shuvee Handicap last time out, head a field of six older fillies and mares in Friday’s $60,000 Sky Beauty overnight stakes.

The Todd Pletcher-trained Happy Week was disqualified from third and placed fourth in the Shuvee after coming out in the stretch under left-handed pressure. She gets a switch back to John Velazquez, who rode the 4-year-old filly to back-to-back allowance victories at Saratoga and Keeneland last year.

Happy Week has posted four workouts since the Shuvee, capped by a bullet half-mile in 47.30 seconds on Sunday.

“She has been working really well – we’re excited about the past couple weeks of training she’s had,” said assistant trainer Jonathan Thomas.

Happy Week, who has won twice at seven furlongs and twice at a mile, will be stretching out to 1 1/16 miles for the first time. “She’s an easy horse to ride and settles well, so we don’t feel the extra sixteenth of a mile will be much of an issue,” Thomas noted.

R Betty Graybull never fired in the Shuvee, but the gray New York-bred mare has won four of her last five starts in non-graded stakes company for trainer Linda White, including a last-to-first score in the Ladies Stakes closing weekend of Aqueduct’s inner-track meeting.

Ask the Moon, who set the pace and was run down late by R Betty Graybull at Parx Racing in her final start of 2010, gets a rematch after returning from a layoff with a sharp runner-up finish here 16 days ago. The 6-year-old mare was claimed out of that race for $75,000 by Gary Contessa.

Distorted Legacy was a debut winner at Woodbine last July, but then lost 10 in a row on synthetic tracks and turf. Switched to dirt for the first time by trainer Angel Penna Jr. last time out, the half-sister to 2009 Belmont Stakes runner-up Dunkirk rallied for a stretch-running win over first-level allowance rivals.

Distorted Legacy earned a new top Beyer Figure of 85, narrowly the best last-out figure in the race over Happy Week (84) and Ask the Moon (84).

Patience Drive, who won a couple of off-the-turf optional claimers at the Fair Grounds, and Satans Quick Chick, who won the Pippin Stakes at Oaklawn Park earlier this year, also entered.