Less than firm turf expected for rescheduled Noble Damsel, Ashley T. Cole

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The New York Racing Association will try a second time to run the Grade 3, $150,000 Noble Damsel and $125,000 Ashley T. Cole Stakes on the turf Friday at Aqueduct, but Mother Nature may intervene yet again.

The two races were originally part of last Saturday’s 10-race card that was scrapped by NYRA due to a forecast for rain and strong winds.

The rain lingered into Tuesday and though conditions were expected to be dry Wednesday and Thursday there is a 70 percent chance of rain forecast for Friday.

The one-mile Noble Damsel returns six of the original seven entrants from last weekend, the lone defector being Runaway Rumour who won last Friday’s John Hettinger Stakes for New York-breds. There is a newcomer to the Noble Damsel field in Miss Carol Ann, who comes out of a runner-up finish to Beaute Cachee in the Violet Stakes on Sept. 2 at Monmouth Park.

Trainer Chad Brown re-entered his trio of Gina Romantica, Fluffy Socks, and Gerrymander – the latter of whom has yet to run on turf – as he seeks a sixth victory in the Noble Damsel. Brown said he has wanted for some time to try Gerrymander on the turf, noting that her pedigree suggests she could be effective over it and that she has worked well over it in the past.

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Gerrymander’s second dam, It’s a Ruby, is a sister to Like a Gem, who produced the three-time Grade 1 winner Hard Not to Like.

“There’s a lot of turf in the pedigree and before we wrap up the season on her – she’s sort of coming back to form on numbers – I wanted to see her on it,” Brown said.

Gerrymander is winless in seven starts since capturing the Grade 2 Mother Goose in June 2022. Jose Ortiz rides from post 4.

Gina Romantica and Fluffy Socks are both graded winners on turf. Gina Romantica won last fall’s Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II at Keeneland. She is 0 for 2 this year and is coming off a second to Fev Rover in the Grade 1 Beverly D. at Colonial Downs.

“She got in a little trouble on the inside, not sure she would have won, but you don’t know,” Brown said. “She definitely lost her momentum a little bit.”

Brown said both Gina Romantica and Fluffy Socks, the latter a multiple Group 2 winner, are both pace dependent.

Malavath has not lived up to the $3.2 million price tag for which she was purchased last December at the Arqana Breeding Stock Sale in France. She is winless in two starts this year, but trainer Christophe Clement has liked the way she’s trained since being given a freshening following a fourth-place finish in the Eatontown Stakes at Monmouth in June.

Not So Close and Sunset Louise should supply the pace in the Noble Damsel. Sunset Louise, like Gerrymander, would be trying turf for the first time. Sunset Louise is 3 for 3 on a wet track, but all three of those wins have come when she’s been able to race on Lasix, the anti-bleeding medication that is prohibited for use in stakes. Sunset Louise has finished last in two stakes tries and is winless off Lasix.

Of the four original main-track-only entrants, only Venti Valentine and Movie Moxy were re-entered. Balpool and Bustin Bay were not.

In the Ashley T. Cole, only one of the four original main-track-only entrants, Un Ojo, was entered back. Bankit, the 10-time stakes winner for Steve Asmussen, did enter the Cole this week.

Drake’s Passage, who was entered main track only last week, is entered in a first-level allowance on dirt on Friday’s card.

On turf, at 1 1/8 miles, the race would seem to boil down to City Man and Spirit of St Louis.

City Man beat Spirit of St Louis in the West Point over good ground at Saratoga. That was City Man’s fourth consecutive victory in a New York-bred turf stakes. In 2021, he finished third in the off-the-turf Ashley T. Cole, the last time he raced on dirt.

Clement is concerned about the ground being too soft on Friday, pointing to the fact that City Man was soundly defeated over yielding turf in the Fort Marcy in 2022.

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City Man, the 126-pound highweight, breaks from post 4 under Joel Rosario.

Prior to his second in the West Point, Spirit of St Louis won two New York-bred turf allowance races. His maiden victory came going a mile in the mud at Aqueduct in February.

Manny Franco rides Spirit of St Louis from post 2.

Jerry the Nipper, third in the West Point, and Born Dancer, 2 for 2 this year after going 0 for 3 last year, look to be the speed of this field.

Kingdom On Paws and Barrage complete the field.

In bringing some of the races back from last Saturday’s card, there are 11 races scheduled Friday with a first post of 1:05 p.m.

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