Calder: Fullers play turn back the clock with Trip for A.J.

MIAMI – It will be like old times Thursday afternoon at Calder when jockey Abigail Fuller climbs aboard Trip for A.J. in the Grade 3 My Charmer Handicap.

Trip for A.J. is owned by Peter Fuller, Abigail’s father, and will mark the first time the father-daughter duo have teamed up in a graded stakes since combining to win the New York triple tiara with Mom’s Command during the summer of 1985. The younger Fuller did guide her father’s A. J.’s Hot Mambo to a maiden win here in early September, just the second mount she had accepted since launching her comeback following a nine-year absence last spring.

Trip for A.J. is coming off a second-place finish behind Successful Song in an overnight stakes here on Oct. 22. A homebred daughter of Trippi, Trip for A.J. is a three-time stakes winner this season and a 10-time winner of nearly $570,000 in her career. Trip for A.J. is trained by Milt Wolfson.

“Dad called me a few days after she ran the last time and said ‘I was thinking, why should I ride these guys I don’t really know on the filly? I’d like you to ride her,’ ” said Fuller just minutes after riding Cool Bullet to victory in Saturday’s fifth race. “Every race I ride is exciting for me but I’m a little extra excited and really looking forward to this one.”

Fuller said her father, now 88, will likely watch the race “along with his gang” at the Seabrook Greyhound Park located near his home in New Hampshire.

Guidry will ride in Florida this winter

Another veteran jockey on the comeback trail, Mark Guidry, also has a mount in the My Charmer, Snow Top Mountain, for trainer Tom Proctor.

Guidry retired from the saddle four years ago before resuming his career this past summer in Kentucky. Guidry has won more than 5,000 races, including such important events as the Kentucky Oaks and Santa Anita Derby.

Guidry, who guided Snow Top Mountain to her first stakes victory in the Kentucky Cup Ladies Turf on Sept. 10, plans to spend the winter at Tampa Bay Downs, where his book will be handled by Tommy Owen.

A field of eight was entered for the My Charmer, led by highweight Denomination, who exits back-to-back graded stakes wins in the Grade 3 Athenia and Violet. The remainder of the field, along with Trip for A.J. and Snow Top Mountain, includes northern invaders Grecian Maiden and Oregon Lady, along with locals Performing, Tesoro de Amor, and Callmethesqueeze.

Turf feature may get moved to main track

A full field of promising 2-year-olds is scheduled to go a mile in Monday’s $33,350 allowance feature although the prospect of the race staying on the turf seemed dim following two days of rain in the south Florida area.

Turf or dirt, Monday’s headliner could prove a springboard to bigger and better things this winter for an up-and-coming group that includes recent runaway maiden winners Csaba, Turbo Cannon, and Solicitation; the speedy Fear the Heat, who has finished second going a mile on turf and dirt in each of his last two starts; Credit Voucher; and Monsignor Nugent.

* Wildcat Frankie, third in the 2010 Fall Highweight, worked four furlongs in 47.93 seconds and galloped out five-eighths in 1:00.90 over a sloppy track here Saturday morning. Wildcat Frankie is trained by David Fawkes for Frank Bertolino’s Monarch Stable.