Familiar rivals to clash in Distaff Handicap

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – If you liked last summer’s Grade 1 Test Stakes at Saratoga, then you’ll certainly like Sunday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Distaff Handicap at Aqueduct, as the top three finishers from the Test headline the seven-horse field.

Cavorting, Bar of Gold, and By the Moon ran one-two-three in the Test, like the Distaff a seven-furlong race. Cavorting and Bar of Gold came back to run one-two in the Grade 2 Prioress later in the Saratoga meet, while By the Moon on Sunday will be making her first start since the Test.

Cavorting will be making her 4-year-old debut in the Distaff. She was originally slated to run in last Saturday’s Grade 1 Madison at Keeneland but was scratched after drawing the rail in what was an ultra-competitive renewal of that race.

“I think the other five Grade 1 winners had a little something to do with it, but mainly, it was the 1 hole,” said Kiaran McLaughlin, who trains Cavorting for Stonestreet Stables.

McLaughlin also had two other runners in the Madison – Clothes Fall Off and Dancing House – and he was hoping to get them Grade 1-placed, though it didn’t work out that way.

By skipping the Madison for the Distaff, Cavorting gets to keep Irad Ortiz Jr. on her back. Ortiz is the only jockey to have ever ridden Cavorting, who will break from post 4.

After running second to Cavorting in the Prioress, Bar of Gold ran second again, this time as the favorite in the Grade 2 Raven Run at Keeneland last October. She kicked off her 3-year-old campaign with a sixth-place finish in the Grade 2 Inside Information at Gulfstream in March.

Junior Alvarado will ride Bar of Gold from post 5.

By the Moon, the winner of the Grade 1 Frizette as a 2-year-old and beaten a neck in the Grade 1 Acorn at 3, went to the sidelines with cannon-bone bruising, according to owner Samantha Siegel. Siegel added that trainer Michelle Nevin has had a difficult time finding a race for By the Moon, so she chose the Distaff.

“I’m very happy to have her back,” Siegel said. “I’m ready for action. I hope she is, too.”

By the Moon drew post 7.

The others entered were La Madrina, My Savanna Belle, Madam Aamoura, and Paulassilverlining.