Interborough, Fritchie options for Expression

Trainer Charlton Baker claimed Expression on his own behalf for $35,000 out of a win in a maiden race at Aqueduct in January 2012. In the almost three years since, Expression has been a steady horse, winning a nonwinners-of-two starter, two claiming races, and knocking out her first- and second-level allowance conditions.

Last weekend, Expression turned in a typically honest effort to become a stakes winner in the Garland of Roses at Aqueduct. She has now won seven races from 25 starts and earned more than $360,000. Expression is not only coming off her biggest win, she is fresh, having started only four times this year, once in February and three times since September.

Baker now has options with Expression. There is the $100,000 Interborough, a six-furlong sprint at Aqueduct on Jan. 17, or he can aim higher.

“She came out of the race great. I’m very happy with her,” Baker said by phone from Finger Lakes. “She is possible for the Interborough, but we are also going to take a look at the Barbara Fritchie.”

The Grade 2 Fritchie will be run at Laurel Park on Feb. 14. The seven-furlong race for fillies and mares has a purse of $300,000.

Baker races at Finger Lakes and the New York Racing Association tracks. This year, he has won 42 races at Finger Lakes, 14 at Aqueduct, six at Belmont, and two at Saratoga. He made a fortunate move several weeks ago by sending his Finger Lakes horses to Belmont before the upstate meet ended. By doing so, he avoided the current strangles quarantine and NYRA ban on Finger Lakes horses shipping to its tracks.

Baker’s biggest win of 2014 came when Moonlight Song scored a front-running victory in the $150,000 Hudson Stakes for New York-breds on Empire Showcase Day in October.

Moonlight Song, 7, has not worked since the Hudson, but Baker said he will race again next year. He has been turned out on owner-breeder Albert Fried Jr.’s 190-acre Buttonwood Farm near Rhinebeck, N.Y.

“We’ll give him about another six weeks there, and then he’ll come to me at Belmont,” Baker said. “We’ll get him started and see where he takes us.”

Moonlight Song didn’t make his debut until 5 but has won seven of 16 starts and more than $400,000.

Fried is best known for breeding and owning Affirmed Success, who earned more than $2.2 million while racing from 1997 to 2003. He also bred and owned Giant Moon, a New York-bred who won eight of 19 starts and $500,000 between 2007 and 2010.