Between the blizzard in New York this week and plentiful options at Gulfstream, trainer Whit Beckman would have been excused if he had decided to scratch his two 3-year-old fillies from the $200,000 Busher Stakes at Aqueduct on Saturday. Instead, the trainer will keep the short field intact, shipping Nycon and Blazing Brat in from Florida for the Kentucky Oaks qualifying race. Because the Busher features just five runners, only 75 percent of the qualifying points toward the Oaks will be awarded. Instead of 50 points, the winner will receive 37.5. If another horse scratches, the points will be cut to 50 percent. “If I were to scratch one, I’d really screw everybody out of more points,” Beckman said. “I figure might as well try to keep the three-quarter-point race intact, so it’s not a half event.” Following a 4 3/4-length maiden victory at Churchill Downs, Nycon made her stakes debut at Gulfstream in the $150,000 Cash Run on Jan. 1. Though she was outkicked by eventual winner Haute Diva, the Nyquist filly still ran on well to finish second by a neck with a 72 Beyer Speed Figure. “I think with maybe a little bit different trip dynamic, she could have won, but instead, we’ll take the effort,” Beckman said. “She galloped out tremendously well. With the way things are shaping up, I would have liked to maybe run her a little farther, but it’s just the way this race came up.” :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Beckman is hoping for improvement from Blazing Brat, who made her first five starts for Tim Hamm before moving into his barn. She ran on all three surfaces as a juvenile and made her lone start on dirt in the $100,000 Sandpiper at Tampa Bay Downs, finishing second. Beckman cross-entered her in the Grade 2 Davona Dale at Gulfstream, but he will scratch her from that race. A pair of last-out maiden winners will also be shipping from Florida. Paradise, a $700,000 purchase at the 2024 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale, will make her stakes debut with high hopes after a stylish three-length maiden score at Gulfstream. Like Beckman, trainer Brad Cox cross-entered her in the Davona Dale but never seriously considered staying in Florida. “They went a little slow early. I didn’t know what to make of the figures of the race,” Cox said. “I really liked her. I thought we got out of her what we were looking for. We expected her to run well and she did.” Current Yield won her debut at Tampa Bay Downs on Jan. 31 and will stretch out from 6 1/2 furlongs to a mile for Chad Brown. A $400,000 purchase at the 2024 Keeneland September yearling sale, she is expected to step forward in her first stakes attempt. “She had to really be used hard to hold her position from a difficult rail draw at Tampa sprinting and never had a breather the whole way,” Brown said. By making the trip north, Beckman, Cox, and Brown may merely be setting the table for the Tom Morley-trained Interstatelovesong, the only New York-based filly in the race. In her stakes debut in the $135,000 Ruthless earlier this month, she earned an 87 Beyer Speed Figure coming up a neck short behind Two Bits. – additional reporting by David Grening :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.