Miss Auramet back on rail in Incredible Revenge Stakes
Veteran trainer Kathleen O’Connell swears she carries the curse of post No. 1.
O’Connell, after Miss Auramet had drawn the rail for a Monmouth Park allowance race on July 23, said she’d love to see post position data to back up her claim.
“I told my staff that I get the one hole more than anyone and at first they didn’t believe me until they saw it happening,” O’Connell said last month.
Maybe there’s something to her feeling. Miss Auramet, getting no help from the rail, took a close loss in that allowance race, and back racing Saturday in the $100,000 Incredible Revenge Stakes, Miss Auramet – yep – drew the rail.
Miss Auramet is one of nine entered in the Incredible Revenge, a 5 1/2-furlong grass race for older fillies and mares that drew a deep group. While Miss Auramet drew the same post position as last month, O’Connell makes an equipment change, putting blinkers back on the mare after removing them for her most recent start. O’Connell thought Miss Auramet had matured to the point she no longer needed blinkers to focus, and she did get into some trouble (due in part to her post position) last month. But Miss Auramet also might have hung a little bit falling just short of catching Introduced, who is back in Saturday’s contest.
Introduced, trained by Jorge Duarte for Colts Neck Stable, has been inconsistent this season but was back to her best in the allowance win and has a good draw Saturday, post 7, from which to deploy pressing or stalking tactics.
But the pick to win the Incredible Revenge is Running Memories, who is 3-1 on the track’s morning line and should be at least that price at post time. As a 3-year-old facing elders, Running Memories gets weight from her chief rivals, five pounds from Introduced and nine from Miss Auramet. Her turf record is excellent, four wins from five starts, the lone defeat coming with compromising trouble, and Running Memories merely failed to handle dirt on July 10 when trainer Joe Orseno left her in the off-turf Blue Sparkler Stakes. Running Memories can lead, press, or stalk, was an improving filly through the spring and early summer, and can handle her older rivals at a fair price Saturday.
The Incredible Revenge is race 11 on a 12-race program. Post time for the feature is 5:02 p.m. Eastern with first post set for 12:15.