Gulfstream Park: Hartford impressive winning career debut

Add the colt Hartford to the growing list of 3-year-old prospects whom trainer Todd Pletcher has won with first-time out this winter in Florida. Hartford rolled to a 5 3/4-length victory Thursday going seven furlongs, a performance Barbara Banke, whose Stonestreet Stables owns Hartford, said was a long time in coming.

“We’ve been waiting a long time for this,” she said in the winner’s circle.

Hartford has been one of the most highly regarded of the class of 2014 3-year-olds for Pletcher and Stonestreet, but Pletcher said minor issues prevented him from racing until now.

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“He’s a big, scopy horse who had a lot of baby issues,” Pletcher said of Hartford, who cost $700,000 as a yearling at Keeneland in September 2012. “We had him in training at Saratoga last summer, and he was almost ready to run last fall at Belmont, but he had a little hiccup and we had to send him back to the farm.”

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Hartford went to Stonestreet’s facility in Ocala, Fla., and worked three times there before joining Pletcher’s string at the Palm Meadows training center in south Florida around Thanksgiving.

“Fortunately, he’s with patient owners, so there was no rush,” Pletcher said.

Hartford is named for Banke’s son-in-law, Don Hartford, whose daughter, Haley – Banke’s granddaughter – was at the races on Thursday.

Banke said the inspiration for the colt’s name came from his near-white coat.

“We thought, ‘Who do we know who has gray hair?’ ” she said.

My Miss Aurelia will race at 5

My Miss Aurelia was the champion 2-year-old filly of 2011, when she won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, and she ran an outstanding race in the fall 2012, when second to Royal Delta in the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic when suffering the first loss of her career. But even though her career has stalled since then, Banke said My Miss Aurelia will remain in training this year at age 5.

“She shows every sign of wanting to train and race,” Banke said. “She’s eager. She’s mean, like always, but not too mean.”

My Miss Aurelia has not raced since March 16, when she finished third in the Grade 3 Azeri Stakes at Oaklawn. After that race, she went to the sidelines, and Banke and co-owner George Bolton transferred her from her original trainer, Steve Asmussen, to Pletcher.

My Miss Aurelia was set to run last October at Belmont Park in the overnight Punkin Pie Stakes, but sustained an injury to the frog of her left front foot and was scratched.

The initial thought at the time was to point to the Grade 2 Go for Wand Stakes at Aqueduct at the end of November, but that plan was scrapped, and My Miss Aurelia is now being freshened at Stonestreet’s farm in Ocala.

“We shipped her up there. There’s not much for her here at Gulfstream, so we decided to send her to the spa,” Banke said.