My Miss Aurelia returns vs. Grace Hall, Better Lucky

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Only in Saratoga will one see three Grade 1 winners – including one champion – show up in a $100,000 overnight stakes.

My Miss Aurelia, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2011, Grace Hall, winner of the Grade 1 Spinaway here in 2011, and Better Lucky, a multiple Grade 1 stakes winner on turf, all landed in Monday’s $100,000 Shine Again Stakes going seven furlongs on the dirt. The race could be used as a prep for the Grade 1 Ballerina on Aug. 23.

My Miss Aurelia, a 5-year-old daughter of Smart Strike, has not raced since March 2013, when she finished third in the Grade 3 Azeri Stakes at Oaklawn. Trained by Steve Asmussen then – and for all of her previous nine races – My Miss Aurelia has been with trainer Todd Pletcher for more than a year. My Miss Aurelia was entered in an overnight stakes last October at Belmont but had to scratch when she shed a frog – part of the underside of a horse’s foot that acts as a shock absorber.

“It just took forever to get healed up,” said Pletcher, who trains My Miss Aurelia for Barbara Banke’s Stonestreet Stables. “We kept her for quite a while and finally couldn’t get over the hump. She went to Stonestreet , it took a while for it to get completely grown out, but it’s nice to get her back. Hopefully, she runs to her capabilities.”

My Miss Aurelia has fired two bullet works over Saratoga’s main track leading up to this, prompting Pletcher to say the filly “is impressive to watch train when right.”

“She is obviously a very talented filly,” he said.

Pletcher said My Miss Aurelia could use the Shine Again as a prep for either the Ballerina or the Personal Ensign, a Grade 1 at 1 1/8 miles Aug. 22.

Grace Hall got beat 10 1/4 lengths in the Grade 1 Vanity going 1 1/8 miles at Santa Anita last month, and trainer Bill Mott is shortening the 5-year-old Empire Maker filly up in distance to see if she could be a Ballerina candidate.

“It’s a tough group going long. It’s a tough group going short,” Mott said. “We wanted to give her the option that if she runs well, she’ll probably run back in the Ballerina. If we don’t see what we want, it still gives us time to stretch her out.”

Trainer Tom Albertrani entered both Better Lucky and Toasting but said he planned to scratch Toasting if the field stays intact.

Better Lucky, 5, hasn’t run on dirt since winning the Grade 2 Sands Point on turf early in her 3-year-old year. Albertrani said he tried her on the turf because the Sands Point came up a weak field. Better Lucky has since had two Grade 1 races on that surface, the 2012 Matriarch at Hollywood Park and the 2013 First Lady at Keeneland.

“Her whole thing is distance,” Albertrani said. “She’s really a good seven-eighths to a mile [horse]. Anything over that, she just struggles.”

Under the conditions of the race, Better Lucky has to carry 123 pounds, eight more than both Grace Hall and My Miss Aurelia.

Bridgehampton, winner of the My Juliet Stakes at Parx last out, and longshot Angel’s Glory complete the field.

KEY CONTENDERS

My Miss Aurelia (Last 3 Beyers: 86-85-106)

◗ Over the last five years, trainer Todd Pletcher is 9 for 30 with a $2.29 return on investment with horses returning from a layoff of 180 days or longer in a listed stakes. He is 2 for 4 in such instances at Saratoga.

◗ My Miss Aurelia is 3 for 3 at Saratoga.

Grace Hall (Last 3 Beyers: 92-93-87)

◗ Grade 1 winner over the track, having won the Spinaway in 2011.

◗ Trainer Bill Mott is 1 for 13 the last five years going route to sprint in non-graded stakes races. He has a second and four thirds.