Fedupwiththefed the one to beat against familiar foes
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ELMONT, N.Y. − There is some debate whether the main track at Belmont Park favored speed during the opening two weeks of the meet. There is no debate that the winners of the three dirt races run on Sept. 24 were won by frontrunners.
Three of the horses who finished behind the front-running Baseball Lady in a first-level New York-bred allowance that day are back in the same condition in Thursday’s opener.
Fedupwiththefed, a daughter of Central Banker trained by David Donk, finished second behind Baseball Lady on Sept. 24 and was 3 1/2 lengths clear of the rest of the field. A repeat of that performance likely makes her the one to beat on Thursday in a race carded at 1 1/16 miles on dirt.
Donk believes the added distance is better for Fedupwiththefed. Three starts back at Saratoga, Fedupwiththefed finished second to Lady Rose going a mile in this condition. Lady Rose came back to run second in the Fleet Indian Stakes.
In between her runner-up finishes, Fedupwiththefed was a well-beaten fourth sprinting behind Grazie on Aug. 29 at Saratoga. Grazie came back to win her next start on Sept. 30 at Belmont by seven lengths and is entered in Saturday’s Empire Distaff here.
Speaking of the Sept. 24 effort, Donk said, “it was a good race for her, she was second best. She’s better at a mile than shorter, we’re at a mile and a sixteenth here.”
Jockey Flavien Prat, second twice on Fedupwiththefed, is back aboard on Thursday.
Trainer Mike Ferraro, based at Finger Lakes, is expected to have a presence in New York this winter. Ferraro will try to get a line on how things go with a handful of runners this week. In this spot, he runs Katie King, who comes off a second-place finish behind her Ferraro-trained stablemate Sweet Anniversary in a one-mile dirt allowance at Finger Lakes on Sept. 21. Sweet Anniversary was entered in a turf race here on Wednesday.
While Katie King did win a statebred allowance at Aqueduct in May, she finished sixth going 1 1/8 miles at Saratoga in July.
Katie King does have the speed to be a pace presence early and Kendrick Carmouche is named to ride.
“I expect her to run well as long as she likes that track,” Ferraro said.
Lady Wisdom finished fifth in the same Sept. 24 race in which Fedupwiththefed finished second. She came back to run sixth in an open allowance on Oct. 9.
Full Pour, sixth on Sept. 24 and the Parx shipper Grace Reformed, who comes off a win for $10,000 claiming round out the compact field.
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