OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though Ellen Jay seems to have found a home on turf, her connections want to give her one more opportunity on dirt before year’s end so the well-bred 3-year-old filly will take on older females in Sunday’s $135,000 Garland of Roses Stakes at Aqueduct. Ellen Jay is by Constitution out of the champion female dirt sprinter Covfefe. Ellen Jay began her career on dirt finishing fourth and third in a pair of maiden races at Churchill Downs in the spring. Switched to the turf for the summer, Ellen Jay won a maiden and an allowance at Ellis Park before taking the Glen Cove Stakes at Aqueduct on Oct. 18. “I’m hoping the reason she stepped up was more due to experience as opposed to surface,” said Brad Cox, who trains Ellen Jay for the LNJ Foxwoods stable of Larry, Nanci, and Jaime Roth. “She’s one that took a little while to figure things out. She didn’t get away good in her first two starts. She’s obviously figured out how to get away from the gate on turf. If she can do that on the dirt, I’m hopeful she can handle it. Obviously, the mare was very good on the dirt.” In 2019, Covfefe went 5 for 6 on dirt with Grade 1 victories in the Test and Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint en route to being crowned champion female sprinter. Flavien Prat rides Ellen Jay from post 6. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. Mystic Pleasure seeks her first stakes victory after a trio of placings in listed events, including a runner-up finish in the Dream Supreme at Churchill on Nov. 9. In that race, she finished second to Upper Case, a filly Mystic Pleasure had beaten in an allowance race four weeks earlier. Rodolphe Brisset, the trainer of Mystic Pleasure, said the complexion of the Dream Supreme changed when the expected speed horse, Spirit Wind, did not break. Mystic Pleasure wound up chasing the other speed in the race and had to work hard to get by her while Upper Case rallied from off the pace to win. “She may have bounced a little bit too. She ran huge when she won that allowance at Keeneland,” Brisset said. “Since the [Dream Supreme] we gave her an easy work and then she’s had two really good works.” Brisset, who bought Mystic Pleasure for $110,000 out of last January’s Horses of Racing age sale at Keeneland, said the filly has a date to be bred to Justify sometime in 2025. Florent Geroux rides Mystic Pleasure from post 7. Kant Hurry Love, beaten a neck in the Garland of Roses last year, returns from a 5 1/2-month layoff in this spot. Kant Hurry Love won the Dancin Renee Stakes for New York-breds and was pointing for the Union Avenue in Saratoga when she developed a foot bruise that forced her to miss the race. Linda Rice has won the last two runnings of the Garland of Roses. Sunday, she has Ain’t Broke and St. Benedicts Prep entered. Ain’t Broke was also entered in Saturday’s Grade 3 Go for Wand Stakes. As of Friday morning, Rice wasn’t sure in which she race she’d run. Ain’t Broke has not run since finishing fifth in the Grade 2 Ruffian in May. Cara’s Time, Autumn Evening, and Captainsdaughter complete the field. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.