Geeky Gorgeous tries for fourth straight stakes win in Dashing Beauty
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
Geeky Gorgeous and Clear Pasaj, who combined to win five stakes last season, will look to pick up where they left off when they make their first starts of 2014 in Thursday’s $50,000 Dashing Beauty Stakes at Delaware Park.
The six-furlong Dashing Beauty drew a field of 11 fillies and mares, and goes as race 7 at 3:57 p.m. Eastern.
The New Jersey-bred Geeky Gorgeous closed out her 2013 campaign for owner-trainer Daniel Lopez by winning three consecutive sprint stakes, two at her home track of Monmouth Park and the other at Parx Racing.
Statistically, Lopez is just 1 for 20 the past five years with dirt sprinters returning from a break of more than 180 days. But each of the past two years, Geeky Gorgeous ran well following a long layoff, winning a first-level allowance following a break of 203 days in 2012 and missing by less than a length in a statebred stakes while making her first start in 245 days last year.
The New York-bred mare Clear Pasaj was part of the exacta in all seven starts in 2013, including back-to-back restricted stakes wins during the summer at Belmont Park and Saratoga. Her trainer, Bruce Levine, hits at a 24 percent clip (13 for 55) with dirt sprinters returning from long layoffs. But Levine has gone just 1 for 17 shipping to Delaware Park over the past five years.
Another New York shipper, Five Star Momma, takes a distinct class drop following three consecutive in-the-money finishes in graded stakes. Her three wins in 2013 included a restricted stakes at Aqueduct and the $150,000 Lady in Waiting at Penn National. Jena Antonucci, who trains Five Star Momma, shows an 0-for-15 record with dirt sprinters making their second start off a layoff.
Crazy About Me makes her first start since joining Todd Pletcher’s barn. As a 3-year-old last season, Crazy About Me was a six-time winner. She has been off since finishing fifth of six in the Grade 3 Sugar Swirl at Gulfstream Park in December.
Over the past five years, Pletcher is 5 for 22 (23 percent) with the horses he has sent to Delaware for non-graded stakes. His horse Giant Sensation was second in the 2012 running of the Dashing Beauty at 2-1 odds.