Miss Auramet may see the light without blinkers
Miss Auramet ran into a buzz saw she might never have seen coming in her most recent start, and in Friday’s featured fifth race at Monmouth Park, the mare will have a chance to see more of what’s around her.
Kathleen O’Connell, who has been training Miss Auramet since this spring after former trainer and part owner Eddie Plesa Jr. decided to send her north from Florida, takes blinkers off Miss Auramet for Friday’s start in an open five-furlong turf allowance restricted to fillies and mares. Paco Lopez rides Miss Auramet on Friday, but it was previous jockey Dylan Davis who suggested the equipment change to O’Connell.
“Dylan seemed to think she never saw the horse coming in the last race,” O’Connell said. “She has a little extension blinker that I guess she needed when she was younger, but she doesn’t gallop or work in blinkers.
“When Robby Alvarado rode her [Feb. 24] at Tampa he came back and said she doesn’t really need the blinkers, but she was running good and I didn’t want to change what was working,”
Miss Auramet drew the rail with eight others set to break outside her. There were severe thunderstorms forecast Wednesday afternoon and evening at Monmouth, but a surface switch wouldn’t hinder Miss Auramet. The mare, by Uncaptured, has two wins on fast dirt tracks, three on wet dirt tracks, and five on turf.
“She’s an all-terrain vehicle,” O’Connell said. “The one thing I dislike is having the one hole, but that seems to be the story of my career. If they had such a statistic, I think we draw the one hole more than anyone else.”
On grass, Miss Auramet looks especially tough, but on dirt, Hey Mamaluke could give her a run. Hey Mamaluke never has run on turf but on June 22, making her first start of 2021, she was cut back to five furlongs in an off-turf Pennsylvania-bred stakes at Parx Racing and responded favorably to the short-sprint trip, pressing the pace and winning off with a career-best 88 Beyer Speed Figure.
First post for the six-race Friday card is 5 p.m. Eastern with the featured fifth set for 7 p.m.