Well-traveled Icona Mama to make 3-year-old debut in Wide Country
?q=100)
The well-traveled Icona Mama makes her 3-year-old debut in her fifth straight stakes race at a different track in Saturday’s $100,000 Wide Country Stakes going seven furlongs.
Stakes-placed at Saratoga and Churchill last summer, Icona Mama finished fifth in the Grade 1 Frizette. Trainer Flint Stites didn’t have much of an excuse for that effort but found a cozy rebound spot in the Shamrock Rose, a Pennsylvania-bred stakes that Icona Mama won by 9 1/2 lengths at her home track of Penn National on Nov. 27.
“She’s doing really well. We gave her a little bit of time,” Stites said. “I think she got a little heavier, a little stronger, and grew up pretty well physically. Mentally, she’s always been advanced for her age, really precocious, competitive. She needed to fill out a little more, and I think she has.”
One of Icona Mama’s better efforts was her third-place finish behind La Cara in the Grade 3 Pocahontas Stakes at Churchill last September. La Cara made a winning 3-year-old debut in the Suncoast Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs earlier this month.
Ricardo Chiappe, aboard for the Shamrock Rose win, rides Icona Mama again Saturday.
Capuano sends out Onyx Ten who, unlike her male counterpart Sacred Thunder, had an unimpeded inside trip when she won the Xtra Heat Stakes on Jan. 25 at Laurel.
“She had a great trip last time. She was really coming into that good. She got the rail trip and it opened up and she came through there and she finished up nice,” Capuano said. “She’s a solid horse.”
Jose Corrales entered the uncoupled pair of Safe Trust and Shkhara Fire. Safe Trust won a first-level allowance off a two-month layoff just two weeks ago, while Shkhara Fire finished second to Onyx Ten in the Xtra Heat.
Completing the field are Ourdaydreaminggirl, beaten 10 lengths when second to stablemate Volleyballprincess in the Ruthless Stakes at Aqueduct; Not Too Late, third in the Xtra Heat; and recent claiming winners Field of Roses and New Boots.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.