Super-claim Battle Bling tries to rebound and repeat in Ladies

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Her last race notwithstanding, Battle Bling has proven one of the better claims of 2021, earning $470,450 in 2022 with three stakes wins including the Grade 3 Turnback the Alarm.

Sunday, Battle Bling will attempt to kick off her 5-year-old campaign in the same manner she did her 4-year-old season by winning the $150,000 Ladies Stakes at Aqueduct.

Last January, Battle Bling came from off the pace to defeat Maryland invader Miss Leslie by a neck in the Ladies, her first start after being claimed for $62,500 by owner Michael Dubb and trainer Rob Atras. Following that race, Battle Bling sandwiched four seconds in stakes around a fourth in the Grade 1 La Troienne at Churchill Downs.

With a new front-running style employed this fall, Battle Bling reeled off three straight wins, including the Turnback the Alarm, a race in which she defeated Grade 3 Gazelle winner Nostalgic by a neck.

In the Grade 3 Go for Wand on Dec. 3, Battle Bling was away slow, never really got into the race and finished a well-beaten eighth.

Atras said the Go for Wand “came up a lot tougher than I thought it would with a lot of speed and there’s a big difference between sprint speed and route speed and there was a lot of sprint speed in there.”

In a two-turn, mile and an eighth race, “there’s not as much pace and she can get into the race a little easier on her own,” said Atras, who has Kendrick Carmouche to ride the 124-pound highweight from post 3.

One potential pace factor is Falconet, who seeks her first stakes win in this spot for trainer Todd Pletcher. Falconet has finished second in both the Grade 3 Iowa Oaks and the listed Seneca Stakes at Churchill Downs. In the Seneca, Falconet was second to Sixtythreecaliber, who came back to beat her again here in the Grade 3 Comely on Nov. 25.

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In the Comely, Falconet bobbled at the break and was caught wide while chasing a slow pace. She was beaten 2 1/2 lengths.

Pletcher said the start “compromised her position a little bit but she didn’t get beat far.”

“Hopefully, a smoother start will create a smoother trip,” he said.

Falconet, in receipt of six pounds from Battle Bling, breaks from post 5 under Jose Lezcano.

Tonal Vision, like Battle Bling, will attempt to rebound from a poor performance in the Go for Wand, where she finished seventh. In July, Tonal Vision finished within three-quarters of a length of Battle Bling when those two were second and third in the Delaware Handicap.

Sweet Willemina, who in 2021 won six consecutive races, and Exotic West, who upset Battle Bling in the Top Flight Invitational last April, complete the field. In last year’s Ladies, Exotic West stumbled at the start and lost her rider, something she did a second time in the Turnback the Alarm.

The Ladies, a once-prestigious Grade 1 event that has been a listed race since 2005, is being run for the 151st time and is the oldest stakes in North America for fillies and mares. With only five runners, it is carded as race 3 on a nine-race program that begins at 12:20 p.m.

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