Clothes Fall Off possible for Madison, Distaff

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Clothes Fall Off, a 4 1/4-length winner of last Saturday’s Correction Stakes, will make her next start in either the Grade 1 Madison at Keeneland on April 8 or the Grade 3, $150,000 Distaff at Aqueduct on April 9, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said Monday.

Both races are at seven furlongs, a distance at which McLaughlin feels Clothes Fall Off can be effective.

“I think seven-eighths should be excellent for her if we get pace,” McLaughlin said from Florida.

In the Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie, going seven furlongs at Laurel, Clothes Fall Off appeared to flatten out late, finishing third behind High Ridge Road and By the Moon.

“I think Rajiv [Maragh] gets along with her very well,” McLaughlin said. “He made a comment to me after the Barbara Fritchie [that] he thought she had a short run, so he has to hold her up, hold her up, and let her run the last three-sixteenths.”