Promising pair gives Pletcher chance to continue Demoiselle dominance

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though he had to make a bit of a lineup adjustment, trainer Todd Pletcher will have two chances to win a record-extending 10th edition of the Grade 2, $250,000 Demoiselle Stakes on Saturday at Aqueduct.

While Pletcher had to stop on debut winner With a Kiss, he will send out another debut winner, Zany, along with Tempted Stakes runner-up Believable in a field of six 2-year-old fillies attempting to run 1 1/8 miles over the main track.

Pletcher said he always intended to run Zany, a daughter of American Pharoah who won her debut by 4 3/4 lengths in front-running fashion going 6 1/2 furlongs on Nov. 2 at Gulfstream Park. Zany is out of the Uncle Mo mare Mo’ Green, who won the Grade 3 Top Flight Invitational here at this 1 1/8-mile distance in 2017.

“We were expecting her to be like most maidens that run well first time. [She] show[ed] some speed and she kept going,” Pletcher said. “I would think she would be prominently placed here going two turns.”

Pletcher said that Zany is “a big, scopey filly. It looks like she wants two turns.”

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Believable defeated Concurrently by a nose Sept. 28 at Aqueduct. Believable came back to finish second, four lengths behind Shilling, in the Tempted Stakes on Nov. 6, while Concurrently came back to win a maiden race by a half-length on Nov. 2.

“Thought she was a little bit all over the place. That’s why we’re putting the blinkers on,” Pletcher said of Believable.

Zany will break from post 3 under Irad Ortiz Jr., while Believable breaks from post 6 under John Velazquez.

Concurrently, also by American Pharoah, began her career on turf finishing sixth in a maiden race at Saratoga before showing improvement on dirt for trainer Chad Brown. Brown said the way Concurrently “battled last time to win and grind away and galloped out, I think she was looking for more ground.”

Shilling, a daughter of Global Campaign trained by Kenny McPeek, has won her last two starts, including a solid four-length victory in the one-mile Tempted.

Jumping the Gun won her first three starts sprinting, including two listed stakes at Delaware Park, before finishing second in the White Clay Creek Stakes going a two-turn mile on Oct. 11. Two horses from that race, Two Bits and Savor It, came back to win maiden races.

Andy Hernandez rides Jumping the Gun, a daughter of Gun Runner, from the rail for trainer Andrew Simoff.

Ivy Girl, who won a $40,000 maiden-claiming race in her second start for trainer Amelia Green, completes the field. Manny Franco rides from post 5.

The Demoiselle, which goes as race 3, offers its top five finishers qualifying points (10-4-3-2-1) to the Kentucky Oaks.

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