New York Oaks: If the speed dies, Shesascoldasice can pick up the pieces

The entrants in the $75,000 New York Oaks on Monday have a number of ties to the race’s host track, Finger Lakes, which is located outside of Rochester N.Y.

Galaxina ships in from the NYRA circuit for native son James Bond and will face Finger Lakes stakes winners Eros’s Girl and Curly Girl. The intriguing longshot Shesascoldasice, a daughter of one of the western New York track’s great runners, has a distance edge on all of them.

The New York Oaks, for statebred fillies, is carded as eighth race and has attracted a healthy field of 10.

Shesascoldasice, by this year’s Kentucky Derby-winning sire Keen Ice, is a homebred for Dennis and Deborah Petrisak’s Langpap Stable and is trained by M. Anthony Ferraro – the same connections as her dam, Shesastonecoldfox.

Shesastonecoldfox won the 2001 New York Breeders’ Futurity, the richest race at Finger Lakes, along with the locally run Lady Finger and the Joseph A. Gimma at Belmont Park, to earn honors as the champion New York-bred 2-year-old filly that season. Shesastonecoldfox, who was inducted into the Finger Lakes Hall of Fame in 2016, is the dam of nine winners from 10 starters, including New York Derby winner Fox Rules and stakes winner Fox Rox, runner-up in the New York Oaks.

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Shesascoldasice has run on a variety of surfaces, but is well-prepped to go 1 1/16 miles. The filly won her maiden going a mile on the Tampa turf earlier this year. She comes into her stakes debut off consecutive wins, an allowance race at a mile and 70 yards on dirt at Finger Lakes and a $40,000 claiming race at a mile on Tapeta at Presque Isle.

Keiber Coa rode Shesascoldasice to her Finger Lakes victory and is reunited with the filly, who has run some of her better races from off the pace. Drawn in post 6, she should have plenty to target, with speed both inside of her, with Galaxina on the rail and No Chalk in post 3, and outside, with Charge Nurse from post 7 and Silent Invasion on the far outside.

Eros’s Girl, owned and trained by Ferraro, gives the trainer a strong hand. He has a third entrant in Silent Invasion.

Eros’s Girl leads the top three finishers from the six-furlong Niagara Stakes on July 4 at Finger Lakes. Eros’s Girl stalked the pace before overhauling No Chalk late for a half-length victory. Curly Girl, winner of the Lady Finger Stakes last year at Finger Lakes, was another 6 3/4 lengths back in third.

Bond, a Rochester native who began his training career at Finger Lakes, brings in Galaxina, with Dylan Davis to ride. The filly won the Park Avenue division of the New York Stallion Stakes Series at Aqueduct, earning a field-best Beyer Speed Figure of 79. She finished eighth with excuses most recently in the Cupecoy’s Joy division of the stallion series while trying turf.

The 1 1/16-mile distance is a question mark for all three stakes winners in the field. Eros’s Girl and Curly Girl have never raced beyond six furlongs, and Galaxina has never raced around two turns.

Silent Invasion and Charge Nurse are both winners at a mile and 70 yards at Finger Lakes. No Chalk and Sister Linda are allowance winners at a mile and 1 1/16 miles, respectively, both around one turn, at Belmont. Sister Linda earned a 77 Beyer in her win.