Hennig finally gets to stretch out Full Pour; double pick six carryover is $91K
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OZONE PARK, N.Y.– When Full Pour won a New York-bred maiden race at Aqueduct on Jan. 18, it was her first start in eight months. The layoff had nothing to do with the physical condition of the horse.
Trainer Mark Hennig believes Full Pour should improve from that race when he stretches her out to 1 1/8 miles in a New York-bred first-level allowance which serves as the feature on Thursday’s nine-race Aqueduct card.
“I’ve been looking forward to that for a long time,” Hennig said about the distance of Thursday’s race. “I think she’ll appreciate more ground.”
Hennig originally trained Full Pour for Little Blue Bird Stable, a partnership headed by Joe Tartaglia, who died on May 17, a day after Full Pour finished third in a maiden race.
Hennig said it took a long period of time to get Tartaglia’s estate sorted out and that Hennig eventually bought Full Pour and a horse named Whitby at an agister’s lien auction.
Hennig eventually found clients to buy into the two horses and having stopped on them in the summer, he finally was able to begin training them again. Full Pour is now owned by Vincent Ali, Ray Doran, William Hayes’s Daisy Acres, and Steve Schuster’s Mashnee Stables.
Though unplanned, the time off seemed to do Full Pour a world of good, Hennig said.
“She grew up a lot over the summer,” Hennig said. “Something to be said for horses getting a bit of a break. We trained on her some, then she got a big break and she grew and gained confidence and maturity.”
Hennig said Full Pour hadn’t breezed much leading up to her return, a race run over a muddy track in which she broke from the rail. Full Pour had to come several paths wide in the stretch and was able to get up late, winning by a half-length.
“I didn’t feel I had her 100 percent ready to run,” Hennig said. “She should move forward and benefit from having that race under her belt.”
Jaime Rodriguez rode Full Pour in that maiden race but is named to ride Pocket Queens. Kendrick Carmouche has picked up the mount on Full Pour.
Pocket Queens will be making her first start since June 13 when she finished last of six in this condition at this distance.
Trainer Miguel Clement said he stopped on Pocket Queens due to bone bruising. While her previous two wins did come in one-turn mile races, Pocket Queens is a daughter of Tonalist, a Belmont Stakes winner.
“She wasn’t moving as well after the [June 13] race, maybe that’s the reason more than the distance,” Clement said when explaining why she didn’t run that well. “That mare has thrown dirt sprinters, turf sprinters. She’s by Tonalist, though, so that’s the thought process of running.”
Otherpeoplesmoney, trained by Rob Atras, is coming in off a win going this distance in a starter allowance. On Jan. 3., it looked like jockey Manny Franco was all in on this filly at the head of the lane and she did run nearly a 14 second final furlong.
Tower Twenty Two was third in a six-furlong allowance here on Feb. 5. She has run well stretching out around two turns off a sprint in the past.
Moonlit Weekend, Capital Gal, and Lonchura complete the field.
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