Glass Ceiling can break through in Garland of Roses

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Charlton Baker will soon be saying goodbye to Honor Way, the 2020 Garland of Roses winner who is cataloged to be sold at the January horses of all ages sale at Keeneland.

He may only need to look down the shed row to find a filly ready to take Honor Way’s place.

Glass Ceiling, coming off the two best races of her career, will try to give Baker his second straight Garland of Roses – and third overall – when the $100,000, six-furlong stakes for females is run Saturday at Aqueduct.

Glass Ceiling, whom Baker won a three-way shake to claim for $40,000 in May at Belmont Park, won a first-level allowance by six lengths on Sept. 30 and then came back to run second, beaten a head by Lady Rocket, in the faster of two divisions of the Pumpkin Pie Stakes on Oct. 31 at Belmont. Lady Rocket came back to win last Saturday’s Grade 3 Go for Wand here by nine lengths.

Prior to those two races, Glass Ceiling was beaten in allowance company by the likes of Bella Sofia and Caramel Swirl. Bella Sofia came out of that allowance to win the Grade 1 Ballerina, while Caramel Swirl won the Grade 2 Raven Run at Keeneland in October.

“She’s been a consistent filly, she was that way before I got her,” Baker, who also won the 2014 Garland of Roses with Expression, said of Glass Ceiling. “If you look at her numbers, from a 3-year-old to 4-year-old she was running the same. I think just now she’s starting to mature.”

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Dylan Davis, aboard for Glass Ceiling’s last three starts, has the call from post 2.

Glass Ceiling’s solid performance in the Pumpkin Pie – for which she earned a career-best 94 Beyer Speed Figure – came over a sloppy track. There is rain in the forecast for Saturday.

Song River, who beat Glass Ceiling in an allowance on Sept. 5 at Saratoga, is shipping in from Kentucky for Cherie DeVaux. Song River validated that front-running allowance win with an off-the-pace second-level allowance victory on Nov. 13 at Churchill Downs. She came from off the pace that day because she broke in the air at Churchill.

Where Song River is placed early on Saturday under Javier Castellano is likely to depend on how well she breaks from post 7.

“I don’t think she has to have the lead, she just has a lot of natural speed which gets her up there easy enough,” DeVaux said.

The speed of the field, at least on paper, is Sadie Lady, who makes her first start since she finished fourth as the 3-5 favorite in the Union Avenue Stakes in the slop at Saratoga in August. Sadie Lady is 5 for 8 at Aqueduct, including a victory in the Correction Stakes.

Call On Mischief, twice second to Sadie Lady, is coming off a win in the Mahoning Distaff on Nov. 22 at Mahoning Valley.

Letmetakethiscall, Just Ready It, and Starfront complete the field.