Hot Stones to try Shuvee
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Hot Stones, winner of the Grade 3 Bed o’ Roses Handicap at seven furlongs last month, will attempt to stretch out to 1 1/8 miles in Sunday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Shuvee Handicap at Saratoga.
Hot Stones, a 4-year-old daughter of Bustin Stones, has raced around two turns twice, both over Aqueduct’s inner track and both going a mile. She won an open-company allowance race by 4 3/4 lengths and finished sixth, beaten 8 3/4 lengths, in a New York-bred optional claimer on Feb. 23.
Of the loss, trainer Bruce Levine noted Hot Stones hit her head in the starting gate before the race. “That’s why she didn’t run,” he said.
Levine said in her allowance win, Hot Stones “drew away the last sixteenth."
“It wasn’t like she was staggering,” he said.
Though Irad Ortiz Jr. rode Hot Stones to victory in the Bed o’ Roses, Levine said John Velazquez will ride her in the Shuvee. Velazquez rode Hot Stones to a second-place finish in the Critical Eye Stakes on May 31 and suggested to Levine he put blinkers on the filly, which he did. Velazquez was committed to another horse in the Bed o’ Roses when Levine decided to run.
Others pointing to the Shuvee are Ambusher, Antipathy, Stanwyck, Swinger’s Party, and Unlimited Budget.