Shippers look tough in Snit

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - A pair of Mid-Atlantic shippers with success around two turns and in the slop appear to be the ones to beat in Wednesday's $65,000 Snit Stakes at Aqueduct. The Snit, run at 1 1/16 miles over the inner track, is for fillies and mares that have not won an open stakes race this year.

Saxet Heights, a West Virginia-bred based at Charles Town, and Love's Blush, a Maryland-bred stabled at Laurel, are both coming off restricted stakes victories over their home tracks. Both races were contested at 1 1/8 miles over sloppy tracks. Rain is forecast for New York on Wednesday.

Saxet Heights has 3 wins and 1 second from 4 wet-track starts. She has 9 wins from 15 starts overall for owner Miller Carey and trainer Jeff Runco. In her most recent start, on Nov. 14, Saxet Heights won the My Sister Pearl Stakes by a half-length over Beware of the Bop, who came back to win a fourth-level allowance race Saturday at Charles Town, her ninth victory this year.

Runco has reached out for Alan Garcia to ride Saxet Heights, who will break from post 9 in the 10-horse field.

"I got a good jockey," Runco said. "Our post is a little bit of a concern. Hopefully it sets up right for us."

By contrast, Love's Blush has the rail, which could give her a slight advantage over Saxet Heights. Love's Blush won the All Brandy Stakes over Sweet Goodbye, a filly who is 7 for 11 but who finished last in the 2008 Ladies Handicap at Aqueduct.

Rodney Jenkins, the trainer of Love's Blush, said his filly had gate problems early in her career, but those are behind her. Love's Blush rallied from well off the pace to be second in the Twixt Stakes at Laurel on Oct. 24 before recording a stalking victory in the All Brandy. Jenkins expects jockey Travis Dunkelberger to have Love's Blush in a stalking position Wednesday.

"She'll be in the race," Jenkins said Monday from Maryland. "Up there, you got to be a little more into the race. Having the 1-hole should help her stay a little bit closer."

Among the locals, the New York-bred My Dinah makes her 16th start of the season. Two of her three victories this year have come over wet tracks, and the other came in a two-turn, one-mile open-company allowance race over the inner track in March.

Tidal Dance, Love Cove, and Life at Ten also appear in with a chance.