Vino Rouge trending upward into Demoiselle

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Tony Dutrow was prepared to shut down Vino Rouge for the season after her runner-up finish to Shimmering Allure in the Tempted Stakes last month.

But the filly came out of the race so well and has trained so forwardly since that Dutrow opted to keep going with her and has entered Vino Rouge in Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Demoiselle Stakes at Aqueduct.

“As the days went by, she was really doing so good that it made me keep going with her,” Dutrow said. “As I kept going with her she kept getting better. I felt this was something that I just had to give her the opportunity to try.”

Dutrow is confident that Vino Rouge, a daughter of Vino Rosso, can get the 1 1/8 miles of the Demoiselle, something that he does not see as a given for some of the other eight 2-year-old fillies in this field. At the suggestion of several riders, Dutrow is adding blinkers to Vino Rouge’s equipment for the Demoiselle.

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Dylan Davis, who rode Vino Rouge in the Tempted, was one who suggested blinkers. Davis was aboard for a Nov. 26 workout which was done in blinkers.

“He liked it, he said this is a step in the right direction,” Dutrow said. “Everybody thinks it’s a positive move.”

Life Talk will probably go favored in the Demoiselle. A daughter of Gun Runner, Life Talk was a hard-luck second on debut sprinting at Saratoga and then came back to win her maiden going one mile at Saratoga on Aug. 31. Since then, she has finished third in the Grade 1 Frizette and fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. Both times she finished behind Just F Y I.

“I thought she ran a decent race first time going two turns,” said Byron Hughes, who served his final day Thursday as the New York-based assistant to trainer Todd Pletcher. “The mindset is she’d take to the two turns.”

Shimmering Allure, trained by Kenny McPeek, rallied from next-to-last to beat Vino Rouge by three lengths in the Tempted. Prior to that, she finished fourth to Candied in the Grade 1 Alcibiades at Keeneland.

Ringy Dingy, a full-sister to the Grade 1 winner Defunded, has won her last two starts, including the White Clay Creek Stakes going a two-turn mile at Delaware Park. Katie Davis, aboard for both of Ringy Dingy’s wins, is back aboard Saturday.

“Katie gets her to relax,” trainer Danny Gargan said.

Dolomite, a New York-bred daughter of Unified, won her second start by 6 1/4 lengths and now steps into open company for the first time.

“She’s always trained like a nice horse,” trainer Chad Brown said.

Most of All won an off-the-turf maiden race by 10 1/4 lengths for Bill Mott on Oct. 20. Cozee Rags, a debut winner at 88-1 odds in October at Keeneland, comes off a third-place finish in a one-mile allowance at Churchill Downs on Nov. 10.

The New York-bred Caldwell Luvs Gold, third in the Maid of the Mist Stakes last out, and Caress, fourth in the Smart Halo Stakes sprinting at Laurel Park on Nov. 11, complete the field.

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