Questions galore in Rosenna field
Under the Rug and Serela are a combined 16 for 26 lifetime, and both earned Beyer Speed Figures in the 90's racing in stakes company last time out.
There's just one problem. Neither Under the Rug or Serela has ever won on turf, so unless bad weather forces Monday's $75,000 Rosenna Stakes to be moved from the grass to Delaware Park's main track, handicappers will have to guess how the two most consistent runners in the field will fare on something other than their favorite surface.
Under the Rug, whose long-range goal is the $600,000 Delaware Handicap on July 22, returned from a five-month layoff and won
the Nastique Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile dirt race, on May 20. On grass, however, the 6-year-old Under the Rug is 0 for 3.
Serela, a 4-year-old filly trained by Anthony Dutrow, was ambitiously placed in the Grade 3 Pimlico Distaff on the Preakness undercard and finished just 2 3/4 lengths behind Serra Lake despite a wide trip. Serela has never raced on turf and her Tomlinson rating, an indicator of whether she's bred to excel on grass, is a below average 260.
There are question marks about most of the other Rosenna contenders, too.
For example, the most accomplished turf runner in the 1 1/16-mile Rosenna is the 6-year-old mare Quidnaskra, a winner of 7 of 21 turf starts. Idle since last October, Quidnaskra returned to win a one-mile allowance race at Garden State Park on April 21. Her previous attempts in stakes, however, have not been nearly as good as her efforts in allowance and high-priced claiming races.
Verruma, a 5-year-old mare trained by New York-based Angel Penna, was 2 for 3 on turf in Brazil, but she has not raced in almost two years and runs for the first time in the United States.
The entrant with the best recent grass form is Pretty Dutch, a lightly raced 4-year-old filly trained by John Fisher. Pretty Dutch won her grass debut at Colonial Downs last fall, then was off until April 26, when she beat first-level allowance runners at Pimlico by 3 1/4 lengths. That win was worth an 89 Beyer, which makes her competitive with this group.