Brucia La Terra should be hard to whack in Tempted

Barclay Tagg will watch from afar Friday when assistant trainer Robin Smullen sends out likely favorite Brucia La Terra in the Grade 3, $150,000 Tempted, a one-mile race for 2-year-old fillies on opening day at Aqueduct. Tagg is at Churchill Downs to run Cassies Dreamer in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and Verve’s Tale in the Distaff.

The 2-year-olds are overachievers. Cassies Dreamer, a $50,000 claim out of a winning debut at Saratoga, has finished third in a pair of Grade 1’s, the Spinaway and Frizette. Brucia La Terra, a $20,000 yearling buy, won her debut at Saratoga and then finished second in the Frizette, three-quarters of a length ahead of her stablemate.

Brucia La Terra races for William Ferrone, who has campaigned a small stable since 2001. The Maryland-bred daughter of El Padrino is named for the haunting Sicilian love song set to the instrumental theme from “The Godfather” (or “El Padrino”).

Ferrone purchased Brucia La Terra at the 2017 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic fall yearling sale at Timonium, Md.

“We went down to the sale together, looked at a lot of horses, and we both liked her,” Tagg said.

Brucia La Terra learned her early lessons in Ocala, Fla., at the New Episode Training Center of Tony and Elizabeth Everard. New Episode has developed a number of top horses, but the facility’s poster boy is Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Funny Cide, the champion 3-year-old male of 2003 trained by Tagg.

“They do a good job, and when the horses come to you, they’re ready to go on with it,” Tagg said.

Brucia La Terra raced close up to win an off-the-turf race at seven furlongs first time out. She closed from far back to get up for second in the Frizette behind Jaywalk, a top contender in the BC Juvenile Fillies. Tagg hopes she’ll be somewhere in between in the Tempted.

“It’s a one-turn mile, which we like for her,” Tagg said. “We feel at this stage, she’s a better one-turn horse, and Cassies Dreamer is better at two turns. We’ve only run her twice, so it’s a little hard to know where she’ll be, but I’d like to see her sitting midpack.”

Dylan Davis picks up the mount from Manny Franco, who will be at Churchill Downs on Friday.

A field of 10 was entered in the Tempted, but Seek and Destroy and Hollywood Glory finished first and second in the Chelsey Flower at Belmont Park on Sunday and will scratch. The card also includes the Grade 3 Bold Ruler, which was rescheduled after last Saturday’s Belmont card was canceled due to wind and rain.

Enliven is the chief threat to Brucia La Terra. The Godolphin-bred and -owned daughter of Ghostzapper will shorten up slightly off a 1 1/4-length maiden score going 1 1/16 miles at Belmont for Kiaran McLaughlin. Joe Bravo rides.

Surge of Pride, the only stakes winner in the field, enters off a victory in the statebred Maid of the Mist for Linda Rice. She rallied from far back to win that one-mile race.

Group Text, who is 2 for 3 for John Servis, has good early speed, which makes her dangerous. Servis won the Tempted a year ago with Daisy.

The high Beyer Speed Figure in the field is a 75, shared by Brucia La Terra, Enliven, and Surge of Pride.