Plum Ali should feel right at home in Noble Damsel
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – After winning her first three races, Plum Ali has won just two races from her last 13 starts. The good news is both of those wins have come at Aqueduct.
Saturday, Plum Ali returns to Aqueduct for the Grade 3, $150,000 Noble Damsel Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile on the inner turf course. Plum Ali is one of just five horses entered in the Noble Damsel, which is carded as race 3 on a 10-race program that begins at 12:35 p.m. and includes the Grade 2, $300,000 Hill Prince Stakes for 3-year-olds, also on turf.
Plum Ali, trained by Christophe Clement, ended her 3-year-old season last year with a victory in the Winter Memories Stakes going 1 1/16 miles here. She began this year with a victory in the one-mile Plenty of Grace Stakes at Aqueduct, beating Technical Analysis, who has since come back to win two graded stakes, including the Grade 2 Ballston Spa.
Since the Plenty of Grace, Plum Ali has run four times, with a pair of second-place finishes in the Del La Rose at Saratoga and the All Along at Pimlico.
“I thought the race was good at Saratoga,” said Clement, who noted that in the All Along, “She looked very well. She came to win the race on the inside and she just did not win it.”
The All Along was at 1 1/8 miles, so perhaps the cutback to a mile will benefit Plum Ali.
Plum Ali has the ability to be on the lead or sit just off the pace. Manny Franco rides from post 2.
“I’m just going to tell Manny break, and if nobody goes for it, be there,” Clement said. “If somebody goes, then be comfortable.”
Clement, who has won the Noble Damsel a record-tying five times, also sends out Messidor, who is a closer. She is coming off a third-level allowance win going a mile in July at Saratoga. Clement said Messidor hasn’t run since because he couldn’t find a race at a suitable distance for her.
“Messidor never stopped improving all year long,” Clement said. “Nothing wrong with the filly, she just does not want much further than a mile and I didn’t want to ship out of town.
Javier Castellano rides Messidor from post 4.
There is the potential for pace in the race with Parx shipper Por Que No and Evvie Jets in the field. Por Que No, trained by Tyler Servis, won the 2021 Boiling Springs at Monmouth Park in front-running fashion as part of a five-win 3-year-old campaign. She is 0 for 3 this year.
Evvie Jets, trained by Mertkan Kantarmaci, nearly stole the Grade 3 Athenia on the lead, just getting run down late by Love and Thunder.
Kept Waiting is sort of the wild card in the field. She scratched out of last Sunday’s $120,000 Floral Park at six furlongs to attempt one mile, a distance at which she has a second and a third, albeit against softer company.
“I’m concerned about her being too keen going a mile,” trainer Robert Falcone Jr. said. “Got to hope somebody goes so he doesn’t have to fight her for too long.”
Irad Ortiz Jr. rides Kept Waiting from the rail.
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