Proxy Statement starts anew

ELMONT, N.Y. - With victories in her first two starts in the fall, Proxy Statement gave her connections reason to think big. But in the eight months since, Proxy Statement has come up small.

A royally bred 3-year-old filly, Proxy Statement hopes to turn her season around beginning Friday, when she competes in a third-level allowance race at Belmont Park. The one-mile race drew a field of five fillies and mares. First post on a sunset Friday card is 3 p.m.

Proxy Statement, a daughter of 1992 Horse of the Year A.P. Indy out of the stakes-winning mare Deputation is 3 for 5 lifetime, but 0 for 2 in stakes. She comes off a seventh-place finish in the Nassau County Stakes on May 11, but she may have had an excuse.

"She got a little back sore," said Buzz Tenney, assistant to trainer Shug McGaughey. "She may have done it coming out of the gate. She got a little bit of a break, and she's done fine since we started her back."

Proxy Statement is 3 for 3 at a mile, including a maiden win over this track last October. She makes her first start on Lasix. Tenney said he and McGaughey still hold out hope that Proxy Statement can win a major race in the division this year.

"They get better when they get older, that family," Tenney said. "I would hope certainly by Alabama time she'd be ready to compete at that level."

Proxy Statement should get a good test Friday from Preferred Option, who has won her last two starts on dirt, but comes off a poor performance in the Sands Point Stakes on turf in her last out. The Sands Point was run over a yielding turf, and Preferred Option dropped back to finish 10th after setting a slow early pace.

"I thought she would like the grass," trainer Allen Jerkens said. "I think she would run on firm turf."

Before that, Preferred Option won two allowance races over Belmont's main track and earned a 94 Beyer Speed Figure in her entry-level win on May 12. In that race, run over a wet track, Preferred Option went gate to wire. In her most recent win, she came from off the pace.

"I think she likes to be in front," Jerkens said. "But, she doesn't get impossible if she doesn't make the lead."

Beijio is a New York-bred who has beaten open company twice. She comes off a sixth-place finish in the WNBC Stakes, but was inhibited by a two-horse spill in the stretch. Saskya and Royal Fact complete the field.

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