Osare, Violet Blue find easier spot

ELMONT, N.Y. – Osare and Violet Blue both were entered in the $100,000 Searching Stakes going 1 1/2 miles on Saturday’s Preakness card at Pimlico, where they would have been mid-range prices against the graded stakes winner Ickymasho.

Osare and Violet Blue also were cross-entered for a $90,000 second-level allowance race going 1 1/4 miles Sunday at Belmont Park, where they figure to be much shorter prices in a six-horse field.

Osare, a half-sister to multiple Grade 1 winner Arrogate, is making her 4-year-old debut Sunday. In her second career start, she won her maiden going 1 1/4 miles here last June, was disqualified from a second-place finish in an allowance at Saratoga, and then won the Dueling Grounds Oaks at Kentucky Downs last September.

Trainer Jonathan Thomas said he was pointing Osare to the $125,000 Dowager Stakes at Keeneland last October, but wet weather dampened his desire to run. After briefly considering the Grade 1 American Oaks at Santa Anita in December, Thomas said the decision was made to pull the plug and point to a 2019 campaign.

Osare got turned out for 90 days before resuming training at around the same time as Thomas’s dual-surface Grade 1 winner Catholic Boy. The two were on a similar training schedule and worked together over the Belmont turf here May 11, the pair going five furlongs in 1:02.97.

“I thought her breeze on the turf last week was very good,” said Thomas, who was scheduled to run Catholic Boy in Saturday’s Dixie Stakes at Pimlico. “She did everything really well. He might have got the better of her galloping out, but it wasn’t by much.”

Osare figures to be a forward factor breaking from post 4 under Javier Castellano, who was aboard for the filly’s win here last year.

Last June, Violet Blue won a 1 1/4-mile allowance at Belmont off a seven-month layoff. This year, she finished third in an Aqueduct allowance going 1 1/8 miles off a five-month layoff.

“She wants a mile and a quarter, mile and three-eighths,” trainer Jimmy Toner said. “She’s a hard-trying horse, and I’m just trying to find the right spot for her.”

In her last race, Violet Blue finished a neck behind War Cabinet, who is back in this field. Two starts back, War Cabinet won a nine-furlong allowance at Gulfstream.

The wild card in the field is Scottish Jig, a full sister to the Grade 1 winner Seek Again, who makes her first start since October, first on Lasix, and first for Bill Mott. Under John Gosden’s care, Scottish Jig went 3 for 7, with one of those wins coming at 1 1/4 miles.

Irad Ortiz Jr. is named to ride Scottish Jig, who breaks from the rail.

Ferdinanda, who stretches out to this distance for the first time, and Jaylan, another European invader making her first start in the United States, complete the field.

With only six runners, this race is carded as the fourth of nine on a program that begins at 1:30 p.m.