Ice Cool Kitty back with her friends

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - A horse's ability to get a distance of ground can sometimes be measured by the company she keeps.

Take Ice Cool Kitty, for example. Against graded stakes competition, she has been noncompetitive around two turns. Against New York-breds, however, Ice Cool Kitty was an authoritative 3 1/2-length winner of the Saratoga Dew Stakes at 1 1/8 miles in August at Saratoga.

Sunday, Ice Cool Kitty faces 10 New York-bred fillies and mares in the $75,000, 1 1/8-mile Montauk Handicap, the featured event on the final day of racing over Aqueduct's main track. Racing moves to the winterized inner track Wednesday for a four-month run.

Ice Cool Kitty, trained by Richard Dutrow Jr., has won 6 of 10 starts this year, 4 of 6 against New York-breds. She had won three consecutive stakes against New York-breds before finishing third as the favorite in the Iroquois Handicap at seven furlongs.

That race came just three weeks after she ran twice in a four-day period at Belmont, including a last-place finish in the Grade 1 Beldame, a race in which she set the early pace.

"She had run twice in a couple of days, then back in three weeks, that was probably too much for her,'' Dutrow said.

Ice Cool Kitty, who is 2 for 2 over Aqueduct's main track, hasn't run in five weeks.

Edgar Prado rides Ice Cool Kitty, the 122-pound highweight, from post 3.

Lauren's Tizzy looks like the major threat to Ice Cool Kitty. Lauren's Tizzy was unprepared for the start and got off poorly in the Saratoga Dew, finishing 22 1/2 lengths behind Ice Cool Kitty. Her last two races have come on turf. She finished a deceptively good seventh - beaten just 2 3/4 lengths - in the Dynamic Lisa, before finishing 8 1/4 lengths behind Rewrite in the Ticonderoga over soft turf on Oct. 20.

While trainer Mark Hennig will likely point Lauren's Tizzy to turf races in the division next year, he noted that she is 2 for 2 on Aqueduct's main track. Hennig said that Lauren's Tizzy, a daughter of Tiznow, is versatile enough to be on or near the lead in the Montauk. Eibar Coa rides from the rail.

Borrowing Base is the only other member of the field to have won at 1 1/8 miles on dirt while One in a Romp won a 1 1/8-mile turf race. Papa Kara was beaten a neck by Borrowing Base going 1 1/8 miles in a second-level allowance race at Saratoga.