Fifty Five rested and ready for Plenty of Grace Stakes

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though she has run well in all 16 of her starts, Fifty Five may have been at her best in the last two races of her 4-year-old season last year.

Despite catching slow paces in the John Hettinger and Ticonderoga – both restricted to New York-breds – Fifty Five polished off those races in a manner not seen from her previously.

Sunday, Fifty Five kicks off her 5-year-old campaign in the $100,000 Plenty of Grace Stakes as her trainer, Chad Brown, seeks his fourth consecutive victory in this one-mile race turf stakes for older fillies and mares at Aqueduct.

Last year, Fifty Five finished second to her stablemate Uni in this spot. By year’s end, Uni was a Grade 1 winner while Fifty Five was giving signs she could step up into graded company.

“She looked like she was really peaking,” Brown said Friday from Keeneland. “She just seemed to get stronger as the year went on.”

Brown gave Fifty Five the same freshening he gave her last year and has liked what he’s seen from the daughter of Get Stormy in preparation for her return to the races.

“She’s done great all winter,” he said. “Excited to get her season started.”

Brown will also run Thais in the Plenty of Grace. Thais was used as a pacemaker in the Grade 1 Beverly D., but hung on well for third. She was slated to be a pacemaker in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf last November, but broke slowly and never got involved in the race.

“We put her in on her own merits for this race,” Brown said. “We’ll get her season started and try to evaluate where she fits. She should be forwardly placed.”

Peter Brant owns part or all of both Fifty Five and Thais.

Coffee Crush, whose lone victory from six career starts came in a one-mile maiden race at Aqueduct in December 2017, and Silent Sonet, look like potential speed types.

Conquest Hardcandy completes the field if the race remains on turf. Crimson Frost and Frostie Anne were entered to run only if the race is transferred to the main track.

The Plenty of Grace goes as race 3 on the nine-race program, which begins at 1:30 p.m. Eastern.

Mizdirection Stakes gets nine

Queen of Bermuda was going in the wrong direction at a crucial point of last November’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs. Yet she recovered from an untimely steadying incident and rallied to be fourth in the 12-horse field, just 4 1/2 lengths behind winner Bulletin.

Based in Europe with William Haggas last year, Queen of Bermuda stayed in the U.S. and is now with trainer Graham Motion. She starts from the outside post in a field of nine Sunday in the $100,000 Mizdirection Stakes, a six-furlong turf race for 3-year-old fillies.

“There’s not much of her,” Motion said. “She’s fairly small, but very straightforward. She hasn’t missed a beat. Maybe in a perfect world it would be better if this race was a week later. She worked with Varenka this week, who also ran in the Breeders’ Cup.”

Varenka, still a maiden, finished fifth in the Juvenile Turf, but finished second in two prior stakes last year.

Trainer Wesley Ward entered three in the Mizdirection but plans to run only Mae Never No. A daughter of No Nay Never, Mae Never No makes her first start since running third in the Smart Halo Stakes last Nov. 10 at Laurel.

“She used to work average and run lights out, now she’s working better than last year,” Ward said.

Ward said he is taking the blinkers off Mae Never No for the Mizdirection.

Brown sends out Golconda, who ran sixth in the Grade 3 Herecomesthebride Stakes at 1 1/16 miles in her first start for Brown and first of the year.

“Maybe I made an error starting her out too far, so I’m going to cut her back and start over,” Brown said.

Ujjayi, who won the Ruthless Stakes here in January, is slated to make her turf debut in this spot. She finished last after breaking from the rail in the Busher. With the scratch of Chelsea Cloisters, Ujaayi will break from the rail on Sunday.

Fangirl, Fashion Faux Pas, and Eyeinthesky complete the field.

◗ Sunday’s fifth race is a first-level allowance for 3-year-olds going a mile. The field of six includes the Brown-trained Standard Deviation who finished third in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity last fall. In his one start this year, he ran second to the highly regarded Global Campaign in a 1 1/16-mile first-level allowance at Gulfstream.