Whata Moon gets two-turn test in allowance

The 3-year-old filly Whata Moon could not quite hold clear Simply Joking in the Letellier Memorial Stakes on Dec. 21 at Fair Grounds, and since Simply Joking looked like a key fixture in the Silverbulletday Stakes, carded for Jan. 18, Whata Moon will take some beating coming back from the Letellier in a first-level allowance Sunday.

Whata Moon drew the outside post in the 1 1/16-mile dirt race that drew eight entrants and has a $100,000 claiming option. Whit Beckman trains Simply Joking and on Sunday has Drexel Hill entered to oppose Whata Moon. Beckman, however, said in a Friday morning text message that Drexel Hill was a very likely starter in the Silverbulletday, which would leave the Sunday co-feature, the last of eight races, with no more than seven runners.

Whata Moon, trained by Jayde Gelner for Simmons and Associates, debuted Nov. 21 in a Delta Downs five-furlong maiden and won by more than nine lengths, cruising easily under the wire. In the six-furlong Letellier, she set a solid pace, responded at the three-sixteenths pole when Simply Joking collared her, and fought hard to the wire while earning a strong 84 Beyer Figure. Jockey Jose Ortiz, who has a return call, didn’t let Whata Moon gallop out much, and her capability at two turns is the only real question mark regarding her chances Sunday. Whata Moon is by Gormley, who gets route winners at a rate similar to his sprint winners, and is out of the Northern Afleet mare Accelebrate, a maiden-claiming winner over nine furlongs on turf. Her two other foals to race, while limited in ability, have handled middle distance racing.

California Sunset will be scratched from the Silverbulletday in favor of the Sunday allowance but probably will not get the strong pace that would aid her chances. A moderate neck winner of a Churchill maiden route Oct. 27, California Sunset rallied from last of eight for third in the Dec. 21 Untapable, though her finishing time wasn’t strong.

Play With Fire could provide stiffer competition for Whata Moon. Play With Fire debuted Nov. 30 in a Fair Grounds turf route maiden and knocked out a one-length win, posting a good 83 Beyer. Trainer Brendan Walsh thinks this daughter of Oscar Performance, drawn on the rail, can transfer her form across surfaces.

“She was impressive on the grass, and she’s been working good on the dirt, so we wanted to give her a chance on it for obvious reasons,” Walsh said. “The draw’s not ideal, but it’s not that detrimental going two turns.”

Sunday’s highest-class contest, race 5, is a second-level turf-route allowance restricted to fillies and mares. Nine entrants form the field’s main body with a couple of main-track only horses unlikely, given the forecast, to start.

Here, Way to Be Marie looks like one of the card’s more likely winners. Way to Be Marie was also entered in the $100,000 Marie Krantz on Jan. 18, and while not clearly overmatched in the stakes, should have her way with these allowance foes. The 4-year-old filly, second by a half-length in the Grade 2 Edgewood at her 3-year-old peak, returned from a summer break with a decent third in the Grade 3 Pebbles at Aqueduct and was rained onto dirt last month finishing second in the Pago Hop at Fair Grounds.

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