Unpressured speedster in Rare Treat?
OZONE PARK, N.Y. If there is no one to put a bit of pressure on A Bit of Pressure then the 4-year-old filly has a good chance to steal Saturdays $65,000 Rare Treat Handicap in gate-to-wire fashion.
None of the seven fillies and mares entered in the Rare Treat, to be run at 1 1/8 miles over Aqueducts inner track, has any real early speed. Given the fact she is stretching out from six furlongs, A Bit of Pressure appears the most likely candidate to go to the front, though her jockey, Rudy Rodriguez, doesnt know if thats the best plan.
I dont think she wants to go to the lead, but you never know, said Rodriguez, who has ridden the filly in her last four starts. The times I rode her she looks like shes more comfortable taking a nice hold of the bridle and letting her take you there.
A Bit of Pressure has three wins and two seconds over the inner track with two of the wins coming at a mile and 70 yards. Rodriguez believes A Bit of Pressure should be able to handle the 1 1/8 miles of the Rare Treat.
I think shell be okay, he said.
The way Amber Note has been running here this winter, she may be the one to beat in the Rare Treat. A 7-year-old daughter of Editors Note, Amber Note has two wins and a nose loss over the inner track. Those three starts in which she has closed powerfully from well off the pace have all come for Ramon Preciado, the Philadelphia Park-based conditioner who is 4 for 10 with his runners at this meet.
I didnt know anything about her before they sent her to me, Preciado said. We were supposed to run her in Philadelphia, but the race didnt go. We had no choice but to run her in New York, and she started running good.
Dina is coming off a fifth-place finish in the Affectionately Handicap. Prior to that, she did run well enough to be second in the Grade 3 Turnback the Alarm and the restricted Gold Beauty Stakes.
She was dull in the detention barn, was dull in the paddock, and ran dull, Steve Moyer, assistant to trainer Jimmy Jerkens, said of Dinas race in the Affectionately. Her race in the Turnback the Alarm and the other stakes puts her right there. You just got to put a line through her last race and hopefully shell show up.
Daytime Promise, Fuego Grande, Game Card, and Freedom Ridge complete the field.