Comely Stakes romp puts Actress's name up in lights

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Jason Servis hopes Actress can be a leading lady in the older filly and mare division in 2018, but he is not exactly sure when and where she will perform next.

Actress dominated Friday’s Grade 3 Comely Stakes by 8 1/4 lengths, earning a career-best 97 Beyer Speed Figure after running 1 1/8 miles in 1:52.66 over a dull Aqueduct main track. Actress wore blinkers for the first time in the Comely, and after breaking slowly, she put jockey Jose Ortiz in an up-close stalking position and still finished strong.

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The victory completed a 3-year-old season in which Actress won two of seven starts, including the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan at Pimlico in May as a maiden. She also was fourth to Elate in the Grade 1 Alabama and sixth behind It Tiz Well in the Grade 1 Cotillion.

“For me to take a maiden to a Grade 2, you know I had to like her,” Servis said Monday. “That’s not my style. I always felt she was a good filly. She was a young 3-year-old. We weren’t beating her up, but she was running against those top fillies. We freshened her up, put the blinkers on, and it was gratifying to see that.”

Servis said the Grade 1, $700,000 Apple Blossom at Oaklawn in early April was a race that interested him for Actress, but he had yet to discuss plans with owners Gary and Mary West and their team. A race like the $400,000 Houston Ladies Classic at Sam Houston on Jan. 28 also is intriguing to Servis, because it would give Actress the same amount of time she had between the Cotillion and Comely.

Meanwhile, Servis said that Rainbow Heir, winner of Saturday’s Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship, will likely have one more race before heading to Ocala Stud for stallion duty in February. That start will likely come in the $125,000 Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint Championship on Jan. 27. Rainbow Heir got beat a nose in that race last year.

Summation Time, fourth in the Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship, could run in an overnight stakes at Gulfstream at the beginning of January, Servis said.