These three fillies are hot now
ALBANY, Calif. - Trainers love to have "now" horses in their barns.
Three possible now horses - horses who are sharp, ready to win, or ready to repeat - meet in Thursday's co-feature at Golden Gate Fields, a $50,000 optional claiming race for fillies and mares at six furlongs.
Now horse No. 1 is Broke in Blairsden, who moved to trainer Armando Lage's barn last year.
She won her first two starts for Lage and has since run third in a pair of stakes. After running third in the one-mile, $100,000 Work the Crowd Handicap on Jan. 5, she was third behind Lacie Girl and Onslaught in the Orinda Handicap on Jan. 25.
She has had a bullet five-furlong work since and will be coming from off the pace Thursday.
Now horse No. 2 is Full Moon Lady, who comes off wins in an allowance race and a $32,000 race from which she was claimed by trainer Larry Ross. Since being claimed on Jan. 10, she has reeled off three straight bullet works. She will be battling for the lead with rivals Madison Davis and Miss Terasita.
Trainer John Anderson hopes he has now horse No. 3: Gyrene, who returned to sprinting in her last start Jan. 17 and posted a victory. In her previous start, she faded badly in a 1 1/16-mile race over yielding turf.
The sprint was Gyrene's first win in five starts. While she earned checks in her first three route tries, Anderson said, "It's possible she's just a late-closing sprinter."
Gyrene, 4, has earned $100,591 with two wins and five seconds in 15 starts; she has brought back a check 14 times. But she is, in Anderson's words, "a bit temperamental" and more than a bit frustrating to train.
She ran four times as a 2-year-old and was stakes placed while finishing second in all four starts. She won her maiden last July at Pleasanton, but finished no higher than fourth in six subsequent starts in 2002.
"It was frustrating because she had a nice 2-year-old campaign, and her 3-year-old campaign was not as good," Anderson said.
Anderson has been patient with the filly, avoiding the possible quick fix of running her for a claiming tag.
"Sometimes you pull the plug too quick," he said. "We didn't run her for a tag. We didn't over-race her, just kept her on her own program."