Highway Star regroups with eye on Distaff Handicap

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Highway Star, who scratched out of last Saturday’s $150,000 Heavenly Prize Invitational, worked a half-mile in 48.11 seconds Thursday over the Belmont Park training track.

She likely will be pointed to the Grade 3, $150,000 Distaff Handicap, a seven-furlong race over Aqueduct’s main track on April 9.

Trainer Rodrigo Ubillo said he scratched Highway Star from the Heavenly Prize because she was coughing following a morning training session the day before the race.

“We scoped her, and she had some irritation on her throat, some kind of pharyngitis,” Ubillo said. “We could have run, but she was not going to be 100 percent, so we decided to scratch her.”

In her last start over Aqueduct’s main track, Highway Star won the Grade 3 Go for Wand going a one-turn mile.