Potential on display in Busher Stakes

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The last time trainer Mark Reid recalls being at Aqueduct was in the fall of 2005. Working as racing manager for owner William Warren then, Reid watched the Warren-owned Saint Liam put in his final workout for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, a race the horse would win a week later at Belmont Park.

Reid was back at Aqueduct on a bone-chilling Thursday morning to watch his own 3-year-old filly Please Flatter Me train. He hopes she can produce a result similar to Saint Liam’s in Saturday’s $250,000 Busher Stakes at Aqueduct.

The Busher, run as a one-turn mile, is the last of 11 races on the card, but it came up with the biggest field as 12 3-year-old fillies will try to earn qualifying points to the May 3 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs. The top four finishers earn points on a 50-20-10-5 basis.

Please Flatter Me, a daughter of Munnings, is 3 for 3, with her victories having come by a combined 18 1/4 lengths. She has won stakes at Penn National and Laurel, but this will be her toughest test and her first try beyond seven furlongs.

“Her temperament is way in her favor,” said Reid, whose last training win at Aqueduct came on Nov. 21, 1993, when Our Shopping Spree won the Montauk Stakes. “She acts like she’s a 5-year-old gelding rather than a just-turned 3-year-old filly. How good is she? Who knows? We’re taking it one step at a time to see if she’s good enough.”

Reid shipped Please Flatter Me to New York from Pimlico on Wednesday in order to give her a couple of trips over what has been a deep Aqueduct surface.

Trainer Erin McClellan shipped Busher entrant Ujjayi in over last weekend, fearing that her home track of Penn National might not be open for training due to inclement weather. Although Penn National was open, McClellan said she is glad to have gotten here early. McClellan, like Reid, is on a fact-finding mission.

“I think the race is tough,” McClellan said. “Is she that good? I don’t know. I do think she can handle the mile. The question for me is can she handle the mile in this company?”

McClellan said she does not like her filly having to break from the rail in this 12-horse field.

Oxy Lady won the Grade 3 Tempted here last November, but is winless in two graded stakes tries since. She gets the services of Javier Castellano.

Espresso Shot won the East View for New York-breds going a mile and now gets a test in open company.

Trainer Todd Pletcher has the uncoupled entry of Always Shopping and Orra Moor drawn in posts 11 and 12.

Always Shopping will be cutting back to a mile after winning the Busanda at 1 1/8 miles as a maiden. Orra Moor is 2 for 2, with both wins coming at Gulfstream Park, and will be stretching out from six furlongs.

Pletcher said Always Shopping would benefit from a lively pace and would appreciate the track playing as slowly as it did last week.

To Pletcher, Orra Moor’s 7 3/4-length allowance victory on Feb. 10 was more impressive than the 74 Beyer Speed Figure would suggest.

“We’ll see if the eye test is true; it did look awfully impressive,” Pletcher said.

Filly Joel finished second in the Busanda. Shelley Ann sandwiched two wins around a second to Espresso Shot in the East View.

Enliven, It Justhitthe Wire, Excess Capacity, and Dovey Lovey complete the field.