Gone and Forgotten seeks repeat in Arctic Queen Stakes
?q=100)
The $50,000 Arctic Queen Stakes at Finger Lakes is named for one of the track’s all-time great racemares, who has never been forgotten. Leading Monday’s renewal of the six-furlong sprint for fillies and mares is Gone and Forgotten, looking to add her name to the track’s history books by repeating in the race.
The consistent Gone and Forgotten, a homebred for Barry Schwartz, sports a career record of 16-10-2-2, with the majority of her races coming at Finger Lakes for trainer Michael Ferraro. Last year, she won both the Jack Betta Be Rite and the Arctic Queen.
She is coming into her defense in solid form. After shaking off the rust with a third-place finish in a local allowance/optional-claiming race in June, her first start in more than seven months, she won an allowance/optional-claiming race on July 12 with regular rider Luis Perez in the irons.
In that allowance win, Gone and Forgotten bested third-place Eros’s Girl, who also has solid stakes form at Finger Lakes. That filly won the Niagara Stakes and subsequently was second in the New York Oaks last year.
Curly Girl was a local stakes winner as a juvenile and has not missed the board in three other stakes starts at the track.
The Arctic Queen is named for the racemare who was named the Finger Lakes horse of the year in both 1990 and 1991, was honored as champion New York-bred sprinter of 1991, and who was inducted into the track’s hall of fame in 1996. Arctic Queen won 11 of 13 starts, with six stakes victories including the 1990 New York Oaks.
Presque Isle
There is additional action in the Great Lakes region on Monday in the $80,000 Satin and Lace Stakes at Presque Isle Downs. The six-furlong sprint for fillies and mares on the synthetic track is the local prep for the track’s signature race, the Grade 2, $300,000 Presque Isle Masters on Sept. 18.
Yuugiri is a graded stakes winner around two turns for Rodolphe Brisset but also is undefeated at this six-furlong distance, most recently with a win in the Saylorville Stakes. She may have to use the same front-running tactics she employed there on Monday, as she drew the rail under Ricardo Santana Jr.
Yuugiri has never raced on a synthetic track and was unplaced in her only start on turf.
At the other end of the spectrum surface-wise, four-time stakes winner Marissa’s Lady has been a star on synthetic tracks, winning four of her five starts on the surface with a second in her other start. The filly made her 4-year-old debut in the Grade 3 Winning Colors on the Churchill Downs dirt and hooked a tough field, finishing fifth behind champion Echo Zulu. She then came back to win an allowance/optional-claiming race on July 5 at Presque Isle.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.