Maple Leaf Mel returns off long layoff in East View
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OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Maple Leaf Mel looks to have found a good spot to make her first start off a 210-day layoff when she heads a field of seven New York-bred 3-year-old fillies entered in Friday’s $100,000 East View Stakes at Aqueduct.
A winner of both of her starts at 2, including the Seeking the Ante Stakes at Saratoga, Maple Leaf Mel was given the remainder of 2022 off due to shin issues. Jeremiah Englehart, who trains Maple Leaf Mel for Hall of Fame football coach Bill Parcells, said the shins were something the filly ran through in her two victories. The time off has helped.
“No surgery needed, we let her have some time off and since she’s been back, she’s not had any issues,” Englehart said.
Maple Leaf Mel won her two starts last summer in a 17-day span. Englehart said the filly’s desire to do her job has impressed him the most.
“Just the fact she likes to do it,” Englehart said. “When you ask her to run, she goes. She’s all business, all the time.”
Maple Leaf Mel, a daughter of Cross Traffic, displayed good speed in both of her starts at 2 and looks to be the filly with the most early speed in this six-furlong race. Joel Rosario, who rode Maple Leaf Mel in both of her starts last year and who has worked her a couple of times at the Palm Meadows training center in Florida, will make his 2023 New York debut Friday. Maple Leaf Mel breaks from post 4.
There was some unsettled weather in the forecast for late in the week in New York. While the potential for a wet track wouldn’t hinder Maple Leaf Mel, it looks like it would certainly help Banterra.
A daughter of Practical Joke, Banterra went 2 for 2 over a wet Aqueduct track last year. In her lone start at 3, the Franklin Square Stakes here Jan. 22, Banterra had some gate issues and finished fourth behind Stonewall Star, who did come back to win a stakes at Laurel.
“The horse next to her wiggled around and she thought they were breaking,” said Toby Sheets, assistant to trainer Steve Asmussen. “That didn’t help the cause. We weren’t going to beat the winner, but we could have been second.”
Sheets said the layoff for Banterra was due to the lack of an available spot to run. Sheets likes the way Banterra is training into this race.
“If she gets a clean trip, hopefully, she’ll be right there,” he said. “I like her draw.”
Banterra breaks from post 6 under Dylan Davis.
Les Bon Temps won the Maid of the Mist at a mile and the $500,000 Fifth Avenue division of the New York Stallion Series going seven furlongs. She cuts back to six furlongs here off a second-place finish behind upset winner Cairo Sugar in the one-mile Maddie May Stakes here Feb. 19.
Lady Mine, second to Maple Leaf Mel in the Seeking the Ante; Security Code, second to Maple Leaf Mel when they both debuted last August at Saratoga; Little Linzee, second in the Franklin Square; and Queens Masterpiece complete the field.
The East View goes as race 7 on an eight-race card that begins at 1:20 p.m.
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