Re-drawn Bay Ridge gets five

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – After being held hostage by Mother Nature for the better part of two weeks, racing is scheduled to resume Thursday at Aqueduct with a nine-race card topped by the $100,000 Bay Ridge Stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares.

Aqueduct hasn’t raced since Dec. 30, a card that was halted after four races when the jockeys refused to ride citing concerns with the main track. Since then, six consecutive cards – and four days of training – were canceled due to extreme cold sandwiched around a snowstorm. A warm-up is on the way this week, with temperatures forecast for the mid-40s Thursday and low 50s (with rain) on Friday.

The 1 1/8-mile Bay Ridge, which did not have entries to fill when originally scheduled for Dec. 29, had been first carded for the Jan. 1 program. Four of the original five horses entered have returned, led by recent allowance winner Frost Wise. Holiday Disguise was not entered back as she will run in Saturday’s $100,000 La Verdad Stakes at seven furlongs. Frosty Margarita, originally entered in the La Verdad, has now been re-routed to the Bay Ridge by trainer Rudy Rodriguez.

Frost Wise, a 4-year-old daughter of Frost Giant, is coming off a 16 1/4-length victory in a first-level allowance race versus New York-breds going one mile Nov. 30. That race came after a third-place finish in a similar spot three weeks earlier.

Trainer Mike Dilger called the allowance win “a breakout performance” for Frost Wise, who will be trying 1 1/8 miles and two turns for the first time in the Bay Ridge.

Dilger said Frost Wise “might have been caught on a dead rail [on Nov. 8]. We were expecting a little better performance from her that day, stretching out for the first time. She’s doing well at the moment, her pedigree would suggest she should be able to get a mile and an eighth around two turns, so we’re happy to give it a try.”

Frost Wise looms the main speed of the race breaking from the rail under Kendrick Carmouche.

“She’s been forwardly placed in all of her races bar one and it’s what she likes to do,” Dilger said. “I imagine in a short field like this she should be on or close to the pace.”

Riot Worthy is the only member of the field to have attempted 1 1/8 miles. She finished second behind Super Surprise in the Fleet Indian Stakes in 2016.

“I think she’s okay at it, maybe not her best distance, but she’s doing good, she’ll be all right,” trainer Charlton Baker said.

Super Allison and Frostie Anne complete the field for the Bay Ridge, which goes as race 3 on a card that begins at 12:20 p.m.