Martha's Music goes for five in a row

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Martha's Music shoots for her fifth straight win in Monday's $75,000-added Rare Treat Handicap at Aqueduct, although there could be something standing in her way, namely the weather.

The forecast in the Northeast was for several inches of snow, beginning Sunday evening and continuing on Monday.

Even if the Big A is open for the special Presidents Day holiday card, Martha's Music still has to get there from her Philadelphia Park barn.

Only five fillies and mares entered the 1 1/8-mile Rare Treat, which lost its Grade 3 status this year and had its purse lowered from $100,000.

Martha's Music, owned by Leonard Green's D J Stable and trained by John Servis, is the 119-pound highweight.

After a poor performance in the Susan's Girl Breeders' Cup at Delaware Park on June 29, Martha's Music, a daughter of Sultry Song, reeled off four wins. Three of those came against stakes competition in Delaware Park's Martha Washington Breeders' Cup, Laurel Park's Grade 3 Anne Arundel, and her last start on Jan. 25, the Nellie Morse, also at Laurel. Her victories ranged in distance from six furlongs to 1 1/8 miles, with two coming over wet tracks.

Servis, who won Saturday's Dearly Precious here with Ladyecho, said after Martha's Music's bad race in June in Delaware, "she just came back and bounced right into it in her next race. If the track is wet, it certainly won't be a problem."

Stewart Elliott has been aboard Martha's Music for her last three wins and will ride from post 3.

Martha's Music's main opposition appears to be Ellie's Moment, the runner-up to Critical Eye in the 1 1/4-mile, Grade 3 Ladies on Dec. 21 at Aqueduct.

Ellie's Moment, a half-sister to millionaire Brian's Time, has won five of her 11 career starts for trainer Jimmy Toner and her owners and breeders, John and Joan Phillips. A winner on dirt and turf, Ellie's Moment is seeking her first stakes win and her first win around two turns on dirt.

Shaun Bridgmohan, who has the mount, has ridden Ellie's Moment in her last five starts, including two wins at a mile over Aqueduct's main track.

"I think she is the kind of filly that will do anything because she is laid-back," Bridgmohan said.

Pocus Hocus, second in the Videogenic Stakes after setting an uncontested pace, looms the main speed.

Affectionately runner-up Wishful Splendor and Miss Splash complete the field.

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