Rice targeting February return for Midnight Disguise

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Midnight Disguise, a three-time stakes winner on this circuit earlier this year, returned to the work tab Thursday at Belmont Park, breezing a half-mile in 50.71 seconds as she begins preparation for a 4-year-old campaign in 2019.

Midnight Disguise, a daughter of Midnight Lute, won the Busher and Busanda stakes at Aqueduct during the winter and seemed on her way to the Kentucky Oaks before she finished fourth in the Gazelle in April. After she defeated New York-breds in the Bouwerie Stakes at Belmont on May 28, Midnight Disguise was sidelined with a soft tissue injury to her left foreleg, according to trainer Linda Rice.

“We sent her to WinStar and gave her plenty of time off,” said Rice, who trains Midnight Disguise for owners-breeders William Wilmot and Joan Taylor.

Midnight Disguise was a large filly, but Rice said “she’s much bigger and stronger” than she was earlier in the year.

Rice said that if all goes well Midnight Disguise could return to the races in the $100,000 Biogio’s Rose Stakes, a one-turn mile race for New York-breds on Feb. 10.