Shine Again no easy assignment for My Miss Aurelia
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – My Miss Aurelia, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2011, will make her return to the races in Monday’s $100,000 Shine Again Stakes at Saratoga. But if her connections thought this would be a spot to ease her back into action after being away from the races for 15 months, they were mistaken.
The seven-furlong race, restricted to fillies who haven’t won a graded race this year, also drew Grade 1 winners Grace Hall and Better Lucky among its six entrants.
In 2011, My Miss Aurelia won the Grade 2 Adirondack Stakes here as part of a perfect season that culminated with a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. Grace Hall, who won the Grade 1 Spinaway that same summer here, finished second in the Juvenile Fillies.
At 3, My Miss Aurelia won the $1 million Cotillion, finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff to Royal Delta, and ran third in the Grade 1 Malibu. In her only start at 4, My Miss Aurelia ran third in the Azeri at Oaklawn. She was entered in a race last October at Belmont but had to scratch when she sustained a foot injury known as “shedding a frog.”
Barbara Banke, proprietor of Stonestreet Farm, which owns My Miss Aurelia, said she kept her in training for the simple reason that she likes seeing her run.
“It’s taken a long time to get her right,” Banke said. “Hopefully, I made the right decision. I like seeing her race. She seems to like it. If she gives any indication that she doesn’t like it, we’ll stop.”
Grace Hall, a well-beaten second in the Grade 1 Vanity at Santa Anita last out, will be trying seven furlongs for the first time since the Spinaway.
Better Lucky, who won the Grade 1 First Lady on turf last fall at Keeneland, has not raced on dirt since winning an allowance race at Belmont in the slop in May 2013.