Midnight Aria on track for Autumn Stakes

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Midnight Aria, appears to be on track to make his first stakes start since his Queen’s Plate triumph last year in Sunday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Autumn Stakes at Woodbine.

Midnight Aria made his first start since his Queen’s Plate win back on Aug. 8, when he finished sixth in a one-mile starter allowance on the grass. But he bounced back nicely in his next start, taking an optional-claiming field gate to wire on the Polytrack on Sept. 28.

“He had a little setback that first time we ran him in over a year off,” trainer Nicholas Gonzalez said. “We gave him lots of time between that race and the two-other-than that he won.”

Gonzalez said Midnight Aria has been training well since the victory and sent him out for a five-furlong breeze in 1:02.20 on the dirt training track here Thursday morning.

“I gave him a little blowout, a little five-eighths on the training track,” he said. “He’s doing super. He’s a fresh horse. He’s only run twice this year. [The Autumn] is the plan, and then we’ll put him on a van and send him down to Gulfstream.”

Gonzalez has also nominated recent allowance winner Eirigh for the Autumn, but said he didn’t want to start both horses in the race due to their conflicting front-running styles.