Needmore Flattery must improve in Angenora

Two-time Ohio-bred Horse of the Year Needmore Flattery will need to show a lot more than she did in her seasonal debut to win Saturday’s $75,000 Michael Mackey Memorial/Angenora Stakes at ThistleDown.

The 4-year-old Needmore Flattery, a six-time stakes winner in 2014, never threatened and finished a distant fifth in an allowance against open company on opening day at the Cleveland track April 27. She returns to Ohio-bred company for the six-furlong Angenora, a race in which she came from far back to finish second last year.

On Saturday, Needmore Flattery gets a rider switch to Luis Colon, who was aboard when she won the six-furlong First Lady at Mahoning Valley to close her 3-year-old campaign last November.

The best recent form in the field belongs to the 5-year-old Pyrite Blues, an easy winner of her first two starts of the meet. In her most recent victory May 20, Pyrite Blues crushed Needmore Flattery’s stablemate Dream Bling by 14 lengths. Dream Bling was nine lengths better than Needmore Flattery as the winner of the April 27 allowance.

The 8-year-old mare Derby Day Storm won the first stakes of the season at ThistleDown, the T.F. Claussen Memorial, by 1 1/2 lengths. But she will have to run substantially faster to contend with Pyrite Blues in this spot.

ANGENORA STAKES, race 8

KEY CONTENDERS

Pyrite Blues (Last 3 Beyers: 71-65-60)

◗ She has been extremely sharp since shipping north from Tampa Bay Downs, defeating a collective 16 opponents in back-to-back wins 19 days apart in May. She lost a three-horse photo by a neck in her bid for her first stakes victory in last fall’s Scarlet and Gray.

Needmore Flattery (Last 3 Beyers: 47-67-63)

◗ She did little running while making her first start since November but may rebound with the return to statebred company and two more workouts. She split a pair of decisions with Pyrite Blues last year, beating her by 2 1/2 lengths in the 1 1/16-mile Rose DeBartolo Memorial and finishing a neck behind her as the third-place finisher in the 1 1/8-mile Ohio Distaff.

Blazing Bling (Last 3 Beyers: 66-57-81)

◗ The uncoupled stablemate of Needmore Flattery surrendered clear leads in the stretch to Pyrite Blues in each of her first two starts this season. She’s a seven-time winner locally but was fourth in this same race last year.