Mutamakina gets chance to flip the script in Long Island Stakes

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – For as well as things have gone this fall for trainer Christophe Clement, winning 26 races from 108 starters between Belmont Park and Aqueduct, there is one loss in particular that gnaws at him.

Mutamakina, making her U.S. debut in the Zagora Stakes on Halloween at Belmont, had a horror trip under Joel Rosario, getting shuffled back from third to next to last before rallying in the stretch to finish third, a half-length behind Luck Money.

“From the half to the quarter pole, the horse in front of me is [tiring],” Clement said. “Instead of going around, [Rosario] ate it and then she finished very well. I’m convinced she would have won the race.”

Mutamakina gets a chance to script a better ending Saturday, when she runs in the Grade 3, $100,000 Long Island Stakes at Aqueduct, the final graded turf event of the year on this circuit.

The Long Island, scheduled for 1 3/8 miles over the inner turf, goes as the final event on a 10-race program that begins at 11:50 a.m. and includes the Grade 3 Discovery Stakes for 3-year-olds on dirt, the Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship at six furlongs, and the Central Park Stakes for 2-year-olds on turf.

Mutamakina is only 2 for 10 in her career, but she has competed against some of Europe’s best, including a runner-performance in a 2019 Group 2 to Sottsass, the 2020 Arc de Triomphe winner, and a fifth to Audarya, this year’s Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf winner.

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Saturday, Mutamakina will break from post 4 under Dylan Davis.

Mutamakina is one of three runners in the Long Island for Clement. Traipsing is coming out of a second-level allowance win and is stretching out beyond 1 1/8 miles for the first time. Wegetsdamunnys was eighth, beaten 1 1/4 lengths at odds of 39-1 in last year’s Long Island. She is 1 for 5 this year.

Hungry Kitten finished a neck in front of Mutamakina and a neck behind Luck Money in the Zagora. She had won her previous two starts, coinciding with trainer Shug McGaughey stretching her out in distance.

Hungry Kitten’s victory in a second-level allowance race at Saratoga was impressive considering jockey Jose Ortiz lost his left iron entering the far turn and, while already last, lost a few more lengths.

Tipped wide into the lane, Hungry Kitten came with a monstrous late run and beat Eliade – who is back in this field – by a neck.

“The pace was slow and we were way back. I didn’t think we were going to get anything,” McGaughey said. “Then we kicked pretty hard.”

McGaughey, like Clement, didn’t feel his filly got the greatest of trips in the Zagora.

“We were wide the whole way and we just missed,” McGaughey said.

Hungry Kitten will have to work out a trip under Nik Juarez from post 11.

Jose Ortiz had been riding Hungry Kitten. He is committed to riding Eliade for trainer Chad Brown. Eliade, after getting beat a neck by Hungry Kitten, then finished fifth, two lengths behind the McGaughey-trained Civil Union in the Grade 2 Glens Falls at Saratoga. Most recently, Eliade won a 1 1/2-mile allowance race at Keeneland by a neck.

Eliade will break from the rail.

Theodora B. won the Grade 2 Dance Smartly at Woodbine and the TVG Stakes at Kentucky Downs in front-running fashion. Most recently, she finished fifth in the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor.

“She ran below her best last time; I don’t know why,” trainer Michael Dickinson said. “She’s been well since.”

Dickinson said Theodora B.’s relatively newfound front-running style developed by accident when she won the Dance Smartly.

“She broke on top, nobody else went to the lead,” Dickinson said. “She seems happiest on the lead.”

Jose Lezcano rides Theodora B. from post 9.

Beau Belle is the potential other speed in the field. Her stablemate Lovely Lucky also has speed but needs a scratch to draw in from the also-eligible list as the field is limited to 12 starters.

Perhaps owing to the premature end of turf racing in Kentucky, there are a host of Kentucky invaders for the Long Island. Delta’s Kingdom chased Theodora B. all the way around the track but ultimately finished third in the TVG Stakes for Bill Mott.

With Dignity and Siberian Iris finished third and fifth, respectively, in the Grade 3 Dowager Stakes at Keeneland last out.

English Affair won the Kentucky Downs Preview Ladies Turf going a mile at Ellis Park in August. She came out of that race to run fourth, following a troubled start, in the TVG Stakes. English Affair represents trainer Rusty Arnold’s first Aqueduct starter since 2007.

Pretty Point, a longshot despite dropping out of a pair of Grade 1 stakes tries, completes the field.