May Day Ready prepared for different pace scenarios in Winter Memories
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OZONE PARK, N.Y. – May Day Ready demonstrated a new running style when she won the Grade 2 Lake Placid Stakes last month at Saratoga. Saturday, May Day Ready may need to revert to her old running style when she starts as the likely favorite in the Grade 3, $175,000 Winter Memories Stakes at Aqueduct.
The Lake Placid had no pace, so Jose Ortiz put May Day Ready on the lead and she went gate to wire to win by a half-length. But with Opulent Restraint to her inside and Ready for Candy to her outside in the Winter Memories, May Day Ready appears surrounded by front-running types in the one-mile turf race.
“If they go, I’d love to sit the trip right in behind if possible,” said Joe Lee, who trains May Day Ready. “Should she need to go, she could go to the front.”
May Day Ready had a successful 2-year-old campaign, winning stakes at Kentucky Downs and Keeneland before running second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar. Her 3-year-old campaign got messed up when the Wonder Again came off the turf and May Day Ready was a bit of a short horse when finishing fourth in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks, a race from which the top two finishers, Fionn and Nitrogen, came back to win graded stakes. May Day Ready was spot on for the Lake Placid, however.
Opulent Restraint finished third in the Belmont Oaks and then came back to run third again in the Saratoga Oaks at 1 3/16-miles. Opulent Restraint seems better suited to shorter distances, and the cutback to one mile here should be to her liking.
“If there’s not much speed in this race, she can maybe control things,” said trainer Chad Brown, who will have Manny Franco aboard from the rail.
Ready for Candy, trained by Phil Antonacci, was a front-running winner of a 1 1/8-mile maiden race at Saratoga on Aug. 17, though the early pace of the race was slow.
Brown also sends out Griselda, who came from off the pace to win a first-level allowance race at Saratoga on Aug. 6, her first start in the U.S. and first start in 10 months.
“She showed a nice kick,” Brown said. “She always trained like a nice filly and it looks like she’s taken a step forward.”
Flavien Prat rides Griselda from post 9 in this 10-horse field.
Scarlet Sands, Sea To Sky, Paradise City, Ruth, Trail of Gold and Decadent complete the field. Decadent will run here and not in the Seneca Overnight Stakes at Churchill Downs, a dirt race in which she was also entered.
Bertram F. Bongard
As a jockey, Kenny Black’s lone New York victory came in 1981 when he guided Piedmont Pete to victory in the Fall Highweight held at Belmont Park. Saturday, Black, 62, will run his first horse as a trainer in New York when he sends out Black Volt in the $150,000 Bertram F. Bongard Stakes for New York-breds going six furlongs on turf.
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Black Volt, a son of Cairo Prince, won a 5 1/2-furlong maiden turf race by three lengths at Colonial Downs on Sept. 1, his second career start.
“That’s what I was expecting him to do,” said Black, who ran Black Volt on dirt first time out because he couldn’t find a proper maiden race on turf for him. “I remember walking over telling the groom it’s not often you see a horse where everything leading up to the race goes as planned.”
Black has high hopes for Black Volt. He hopes the horse runs well enough Saturday so he can run him back in two weeks in the Futurity and then potentially the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Del Mar on Oct. 31. John Velazquez rides Black Volt.
Spirit of New York, trained by Adam Rice, won a New York-bred maiden turf sprint at Saratoga on July 16 before finishing third of five as the 4-5 favorite in the Skidmore Stakes on Aug. 16. Back with New York-breds, Spirit of New York is likely the horse to beat under Manny Franco.
Cristobal and Funny Factor finished third and fourth, respectively, behind Spirit of New York on July 16. Both of those horses have since come back to win maiden races and are in this field.
Lawyer Mason beat New York-breds sprinting on turf on Aug. 8 before fishing eighth in the Juvenile Sprint at Kentucky Downs on Aug. 31. Twenty One Red, trained by George Weaver, and Three Thirteen, trained by Melanie Giddings, are both maidens coming off runner-up finishes in their most recent starts.
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