Midnight Disguise looks to duplicate sister in Bouwerie Stakes

ELMONT, N.Y. – Last year, Holiday Disguise gave trainer Linda Rice her second straight victory in the Bouwerie Stakes. On Monday, Midnight Disguise – a half-sister to Holiday Disguise – will seek to continue Rice’s streak in the seven-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies at Belmont Park.

Rice will actually have two runners in the Bouwerie, as she also entered the streaking Split Time in the 11-horse field, which combined has won 11 stakes races.

Midnight Disguise was being pointed to the Grade 2, $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan at Pimlico on May 18, but a bruised foot prevented her from making that race.

“It resolved pretty good, she was lame two days before the Black-Eyed Susan, we pulled the shoe off, soaked it for a few days, took us four or five days to get her back under tack,” Rice said.

Midnight Disguise is seeking to bounce back from a fourth-place finish as the favorite in the Grade 2 Gazelle on April 7 at Aqueduct. Rice is adding blinkers to Midnight Disguise’s equipment and has Jose Ortiz to ride.

Rice had Irad Ortiz Jr. to ride her in the Black-Eyed Susan, but he is committed to ride Letmetakethiscall for Rudy Rodriguez in the Bouwerie.

Letmetakethiscall, a daughter of Take Charge Indy, is 2 for 2, winning her maiden on the front end in the slop in February and taking a first-level allowance from off the pace over a dry surface in March.

“The first time she broke so good, and a sloppy track, so don’t take back,” trainer Rudy Rodriguez said. “But the last time she settled down pretty good and made one move. She looks like she’s coming to the race good, hopefully she keeps improving and we’ll be in good shape.”

English Soul makes her return to the races in the Bouwerie. She has not raced since beating Midnight Disguise in the East View Stakes in January. Myriad issues kept her sidelined though the winter, and trainer Ray Handal believes she’ll need a race to move her forward.

“I’ve done as much as I could have through training,” Handal said. “She’s matured a lot in the morning … she has learned to listen to the rider a little bit and I think she’ll be a little more rateable.”

Baby Boss is coming off a victory in a division of the New York Stallion Stakes for Jeremiah Englehart. She’s Quiet went 2 for 2 out of town and now faces New York-breds for the first time for trainer Jeff Allen.

Pure Silver is seeking to end a five-race losing streak since she won the Grade 2 Adirondack at Saratoga last summer.