New Girl in Town returns home for Jack Betta Be Rite

New Girl in Town is anything but as she returns to her home track of Finger Lakes from an allowance victory at Saratoga for the $50,000 Jack Betta Be Rite Stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares on Monday. The Jack Betta Be Rite will be run at 1 1/16 miles and attracted a field of six.

Trained by Christopher Progno, New Girl in Town has won 7 of 14 starts while making all but one of those starts at Finger Lakes. Her only road trip came in her last start, a three-quarter-length allowance win going six furlongs against statebreds on July 27. New Girl in Town was coming off a win and a second in allowance races at Finger Lakes, and was sent off at 22-1 at Saratoga.

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Last year, New Girl in Town ran in two stakes. She was second by a nose to Crashing Connie in the Niagara Stakes going six furlongs in June, and fifth in the New York Oaks later that summer going 1 1/16 miles.

Luis Reyes was aboard her for the first time in her Saratoga victory, and keeps the mount on Monday.

Might Be, trained by Chris Englehart, makes her first start since last September and first at Finger Lakes in the Jack Betta Be Rite. Two of her best performances came at this 1 1/16-mile distance: a nine-length statebred allowance win at Belmont Park in June 2018, and a second in the Empire Distaff at Belmont in October of 2017.

No Hayne No Gayne ships in for the Jack Betta Be Rite for trainer Steve Asmussen to face New York-breds for the first time since running fourth in the one-mile Biogio’s Rose at Aqueduct in February. In January she won a statebred allowance at Aqueduct by 7 3/4 lengths. Her last three starts have come against open company, the most recent a fourth in an optional-claiming race at Monmouth Park.

Elegant Jem rolled by 15 1/2 lengths in a Finger Lakes allowance going a mile and 70 yards in June. She is looking to rebound from a trip to Saratoga, where she finished eighth in a statebred optional claimer on yielding turf.

◗ Earlier on Monday’s card, Dylan Clarke trains the two favorites in the $40,000 Mass Bred Handicap, which is for Massachusetts-bred 4-year-olds and up going six furlongs. Finger Lakes is carding races for Massachusetts-breds to help fill the hole left by the closing of Suffolk Downs in late June.

Clarke sends out Grady and The Doc Is In for the Mass Bred Handicap. Grady, a stakes winner in restricted company at Finger Lakes last year, was second in a Massachusetts-bred overnight stakes on July 30 at this track, and The Doc Is In was third.