Familiar names, new faces clash in Get Lucky

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - A forecast for unseasonably warm temperatures means it will feel like April at the Big A Thursday. Handicappers may also get a case of spring fever when they see race 3, the $65,000 Get Lucky Stakes, which is an overnight event that brightens a midweek card.

Seven 4-year-old fillies entered the one-mile Get Lucky, restricted to nonwinners of a graded stakes in 2006. The conditions, however, do not exclude Kimchi, the Sovereign Award winner as Canada's champion 3-year-old filly of 2006.

Kimchi has been sidelined since winning the Woodbine Oaks and the Bison City, the first two legs in the Canadian equivalent of the triple tiara, before falling short in the Wonder Where at 1 1/4 miles on yielding turf in late July.

"I got her back in September, but she popped a splint as soon as she got here," said Gary Contessa, who worked Kimchi a total of 33 furlongs in five recent drills over the inner track. "She's trained off the charts. Each work she's gotten better and better."

Two other new faces are Motel Dancing, who ships in from Laurel, and A True Pussycat, whose 2 wins from 14 starts in Florida last year both came in the slop.

A True Pussycat closed out a busy campaign by posting the two best Beyer Speed Figures of her career, an 85 and an 86, in minor stakes at Calder, and has been freshened since arriving in New York.

"She came up four or five weeks ago and hasn't had a hiccup," said her new trainer, Tom Bush. "I'm not exactly sure if she's run against better, but she finishes good in her workouts and it looks like her style will work on the inner track."

Familiar faces include Love Locket, a three-time stakes winner who recently returned from a layoff and ran a close third in a similar spot; Spring Is Here; Swinging Maria; and How 'bout No, a New York-bred who won 2 of 4 starts on the inner track last winter, including an overnight sprint stakes.

Making her first start since last May's Bouwerie Stakes, How 'bout No finished fourth sprinting in the mud New Year's Day. She stretches out on short rest for trainer Richard Dutrow Jr., a pattern that produced a big win by the filly three races back.

"If things look good, I do not have a problem trying it again," he said. "It worked then, so I'll probably do it. Her game is not an off track."