Franny Freud may simply be too fast

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - While Franny Freud is certainly taking a drop in class when she runs in Sunday's $100,000 Fifth Avenue at Aqueduct, this juvenile filly division of the New York Stallion Stakes certainly didn't come up easy.

Franny Freud, who finished fifth in the Grade 1 Frizette last out, meets the undefeated So N So as well as stakes-placed runners Embrace Change and Hook Me Up in the six-furlong race, one of five Stallion Stakes to be run here on Sunday. Six divisions of Stallion Stakes races were scheduled, but the Perfect Arc division did not fill. It is listed as an extra race for Wednesday.

Franny Freud, trained by John Terranova, is 3 for 5 including victories in the Ontario Debutante over Woodbine's synthetic surface and the Lady Finger Stakes on dirt at Finger Lakes. On speed figures, Franny Freud appears to be faster on synthetics than dirt.

"She was 2 for 2 on the dirt," Terranova said. "They may not have been the biggest numbers in the world compared to her synthetic numbers, but they were good enough to outclass the groups that she was running with. I think that's what it will come down to [Sunday]."

So N So is 2 for 2 on dirt, including a victory over Mineralogist - a subsequent winner of two stakes - in the Lucy Scribner Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 24. So N So had some tender shins after that race, and has been breezing since only mid-October. But So N So's five-furlong work in 1:00.65 on Nov. 6 at Belmont has trainer Tom Bush thinking his filly is ready.

"That work was plenty strong enough, she wasn't blowing afterward," Bush said. "I think we're in pretty good shape."

Hook Me Up finished second to Franny Freud in the Lady Finger and third against males in the New York Breeders Futurity. Embrace Change, a maiden, finished second to Mineralogist in the Maid of the Mist at Belmont.

Beware the Calder horse

Two-year-olds who began their careers at Calder have already won the Saratoga Special, Futurity and Champagne on this circuit. Following that theory, Out of Respect could be the horse to beat in the $100,000 Great White Way for 2-year-old males.

Out of Respect, a son of Read the Footnotes, won an open company maiden race by 4 1/4 lengths at Calder on Oct. 25. After that race, he was transferred by owner Dennis Narlinger to Bruce Levine.