Mandella to have rare New York starter in Amuse

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – California-based trainer Richard Mandella will have a rare starter at Aqueduct on Saturday when he ships the 6-year-old mare Amuse cross-country to run in the $100,000 Correction Stakes.

Amuse will represent Mandella’s first starter at Aqueduct since Fare and Go finished fourth in a $25,000 claimer on Feb. 27, 2002. Mandella’s last starter on the New York Racing Association circuit was Beholder, who finished fourth in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps in June 2014.

The Correction is scheduled to be the last start for Amuse before she is bred to War Front this spring. It is one more chance to get a stakes victory, something that has eluded her in six previous tries. Two starts back, Amuse was beaten one length in the Kalookan Queen Stakes at Santa Anita. Most recently, though, she was a well-beaten fifth in the Grade 2 Santa Monica.

“I thought she’d run her best race last time,” Mandella said. “It wasn’t a bad effort, but it wasn’t her best so I’m hoping for that on Saturday.”

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Amuse is a daughter of Medaglia d’Oro owned by Claiborne Farm, Adel Dilschneider, Ramona Bass, and Perry Bass II.

Mandella has Kendrick Carmouche, the meet’s leading jockey, to ride Amuse. Mandella shipped the horse to trainer Jimmy Jerkens earlier in the week.

Noting that Jerkens won last Saturday’s Grade 3 Gotham with 45-1 shot Weyburn, Mandella said “I told him to put his magic on her.”

The Correction drew a field of seven and will go as race 9 on a 10-race card. The field, from the rail out, is Kansas Kis, Sadie Lady, Amuse, Call On Mischief, Jump for Joy, Awesome Debate, and Prairie Fire.

The two-time stakes winner Dontletsweetfoolya was going to come but a case of equine herpesvirus on the backstretch of Laurel Park – where the filly is based with trainer Lacey Gaudiet – prevented her from shipping to New York. Horses based at Laurel are prohibited from leaving the grounds during the time the facility’s barns are under quarantine. Further, NYRA is not accepting shippers from Laurel or Pimlico for the time being.