Busanda: Affirmative Lady a stakes-worthy maiden

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The desire to run her a true distance of ground was a primary reason Graham Motion left Affirmative Lady – winless in three starts – at his base in Fair Hill, Md., for the winter rather than ship her to either South Florida or Southern California where the trainer also has divisions.

While Motion preferably would have gotten the chance to run her in a maiden race, Affirmative Lady very much fits in Saturday’s $100,000 Busanda Stakes, a two-turn, 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-old fillies at Aqueduct that drew only a field of five.

Affirmative Lady enters the Busanda off a neck defeat when second to the well-regarded Julia Shining in the Grade 2 Demoiselle, also a 1 1/8-mile race, here Dec. 3.

“I thought she ran super,” Motion said. “I kind of had the feeling if an opportunity arose to run her back in a maiden that would be my preference. There hasn’t been an opportunity. Certainly, you don’t get the opportunity to run a mile and an eighth too often. These [Arrogate progeny] really appreciate the distance.”

Though Motion knew Affirmative Lady would prefer going longer, he thought she could still win her maiden sprinting. However, she finished third and then fourth in two sprints at Keeneland during the fall. In the Demoiselle, Affirmative Lady raced fifth early on, made a wide move under John Velazquez, and seemed to reengage when Julia Shining came to her outside. The two ran together from inside the eighth pole to the wire, with Julia Shining getting the nod.

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“Johnny was a little frustrated when he came back,” Motion said. “I thought she really dug in.”

Saturday, Manny Franco will ride Affirmative Lady from post 3.

Affirmative Lady outfinished Gambling Girl by three-quarters of a length for second in the Demoiselle. Gambling Girl is a New York-bred daughter of Dialed In trained by Todd Pletcher and owned by Mike Repole. Those connections have won two runnings of the Busanda, Pletcher has won five overall.

Gambling Girl is the only multiple winner in the field, with both victories coming in statebred company.

Pletcher also sends out Aniston, who won a 1 1/8-mile maiden race by 4 3/4 lengths on Nov. 25 in a less than inspiring final time of 1:58.39.

Trainer Chad Brown sends out Occult, a daughter of Into Mischief who won her maiden going a mile here Dec. 18 in what was her second start. She has shown enough enthusiasm out of the gate to be a forward factor if her connections so choose. Dylan Davis picks up the mount.

Sweetest Princess won a slowly run one-mile New York-bred maiden race Nov. 18, her first start on dirt after three losses on turf.

The Busanda, which offers its top five finishers points to the May 5 Kentucky Oaks (20-8-6-5-2) goes as race 8 on a nine-race card that begins at 12:20 p.m.

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