Plans pending for Ritzaphena
Plans for Ritzaphena, who remained unbeaten in two starts with her recent win in the $100,000 Prairie Meadows Debutante, are to be determined, according to her trainer, Jayde Gelner.
Ritzaphena won her debut going two turns on turf and cut back to one turn and moved to dirt for the six-furlong Debutante.
“I thought she ran well,” Gelner said. “She’d been training really well up into the race. I didn’t think the surface would bother her, and I liked the cutback in distance.”
Gelner said he will be looking over all options for Ritzaphena.
“We’ll kind of look and see what they have,” he said. “I think she’s versatile. I think you can train her to do anything. I think she could be better just stretching further, even on the dirt, say 6 1/2 [furlongs], something like that. I think that she has some natural speed to her, so she can do either/or, if need be.”
Ritzaphena is a daughter of Lexitonian who races for Sandeep Patel. Rizaphena’s third dam is the Hall of Fame mare Dahlia.
“She’s an athletic-looking filly, a nice-sized filly,” said Gelner.
* Al Pike, a former trainer turned accomplished consignor, died July 26 after a battle with cancer, according to a press release from the Texas Thoroughbred Association. He was 70 and leaves behind his wife of 45 years, Salley, and adult children Colt and Chelsey. Pike sold the sales topper at the Texas 2-year-olds in training sale in both 2023 and 2024.
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