Chocolate Gelato will make comeback run in Jersey Girl Stakes
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ELMONT, N.Y. - Chocolate Gelato, idle since finishing a tiring 12th after pressing the pace for six furlongs in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, will make her 3-year-old debut here next Thursday in the $150,000 Jersey Girl Stakes.
Trainer Todd Pletcher confirmed Chocolate Gelato’s status for the six-furlong Jersey Girl about an hour after she worked five furlongs in 1:02.20 seconds and galloped out six panels in 1:15.80 over the Belmont Park training track in company with Meteorite on Thursday.
“I thought she worked well this morning,” said Pletcher. “She had a couple of little issues after the Breeders’ Cup so we gave her some time off, tried to put some weight on her, and she’s been doing well.”
Chocolate Gelato won the Grade 1 Frizette going a mile over a sloppy track at Aqueduct to earn her spot in the BC Juvenile Fillies.
“Hopefully the Jersey Girl will prove a stepping-stone to something bigger, although I’m not sure exactly what just yet,” Pletcher said. “Although she gives the impression she will stretch out.”
Pletcher also noted that Munnys Gold, who suffered her first setback in four starts when beaten a head by Red Carpet Ready as the 2-5 favorite in the Grade 2 Eight Belles on the Kentucky Derby undercard earlier this month, could return here next Friday in the Grade 1 Acorn.
“She’ll work tomorrow [Friday] at Churchill Downs and if that goes well, we’ll take a look at the Acorn,” said Pletcher.
Munnys Gold, who won her first three career starts in sensational fashion by a combined margin of 38 1/2 lengths, has yet to run beyond seven furlongs. The Acorn, which drew 21 nominations including Pretty Mischievous and Pletcher’s Gambling Girl, the respective one-two finishers in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks, will be decided at a mile and one-sixteenth.
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