Busanda field small but sharp

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Five 3-year-old fillies with similar running styles and similar resumes are set to race a mile and 70 yards in Sunday's $65,000 Busanda Stakes at Aqueduct.

All the fillies come off solid efforts at five different tracks, with Judge Sonya arguably coming off the best last-race performance. On Nov. 10, trainer Ben Perkins Jr. shipped Judge Sonya to Penn National for a first-level allowance race where she forged her way to the front after a moderate half-mile, and was passed by Listen In at the eighth pole before coming back on that filly to win by a half-length. It was 18 lengths back to the remainder of the field.

Listen In came back to win the $75,000 Blue Mountain Stakes at Penn National while the seventh- and eighth-place finishers from the Nov. 10 race came back to win $25,000 claiming races.

"I was kind of surprised she was in front, she hadn't show as much early speed, but Tommy Turner said 'She just drug me to the lead,' '' Perkins said.

Turner also told Perkins that Judge Sonya started to loaf a little bit on the lead, and when Listen In came to her "she picked it up again,'' Perkins said.

Judge Sonya shows two bullet works over the Belmont training track in preparation for the Busanda. She will break from post 5 under Mike Luzzi.

The best-bred horse in the field is Summer Humor, a daughter of Distorted Humor out of the Grade 1-winning mare Summer Colony. Like Judge Sonya, Summer Humor came back after being passed in the stretch to earn a maiden victory at Meadowlands on Dec. 7. Summer Colony is trained by Kiaran McLaughlin, who has won with six of his last seven runners at this meet.

After a disappointing debut sprinting in the slop at Belmont, Anchorage found two turns and Delaware Park more to her liking when she cruised to 2 1/2-length victory in a two-turn, one-mile race in October. She figures to be on or near the pace breaking from the rail under David Cohen.

Fuzzy Britches runs three days after winning a starter allowance race sprinting over the inner track. She finished third in the Grade 2 Demoiselle over the main track in November.

Age of Humor, a debut winner at Meadowlands sprinting and a runner-up in a Philadelphia Park allowance on Dec. 7, attempts two turns for the first time for trainer Steve Klesaris.