Windy fit for return

ELMONT, N.Y. - It could be rainy at Belmont Park on Wednesday. Trainer Chad Brown hopes it's Windy, too.

Brown, a former assistant to trainer Bobby Frankel, will send out the 5-year-old mare Windy in a third-level allowance race that serves as the featured event on Belmont's nine-race card. There are four allowance races on the card, which kicks off Belmont Stakes week.

Windy has not been out since a fifth-place finish as the favorite in the Grade 2 Chilukki Stakes at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3. One start prior to that, Windy just missed in this allowance condition, falling a head short to Baby Bird after stumbling at the start.

Windy was given the winter off by owners Gary and Mary West, but she appears to be training very smartly for her seasonal debut. Windy shows five straight bullet works leading up to this, including three over the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga. Wednesday's race is at 6 1/2 furlongs, a distance at which Windy is 2 for 2.

"She should be dead fit the way she's training," Brown said. "The distance is good for her, and that should be a real good spot to come back in."

Though Windy has not run over a wet track in her career, Brown did not think it would be an issue for the daughter of Wild Rush.

"I wouldn't be really worried about if it was wet," Brown said.

In three races run over wet tracks, Solarana has two seconds and a third. Last out, Solarana was beaten one length in the slop by Looky Yonder in this allowance condition. Looky Yonder came back to win the Grade 2 Vagrancy Handicap here.

Solarana, trained by Stan Hough, is winless in 12 starts since coming to this country from Argentina.

Jessica Is Back is 4 for 8 on wet surfaces, but was beaten 21 1/2 lengths in the same race that Solarana comes out of. Jessica Is Back, Are We Dreamin, and Just Zip It complete the field.

In the third race, a first-level allowance for 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/16 miles, August Rex looks to stretch out in distance for the first time. A sharp debut sprint winner over the inner track in March, August Rex finished second to True Quality, a Woody Stephens Stakes candidate, in a first-level allowance race in April.

In the fourth, a first-level turf allowance for fillies 3 years old and up, Cherokee Queen meets winners after a maiden win over Keeneland's Polytrack. Lisa Lewis, who has eight horses stabled in New York while maintaining a string in California, sends out the Illinois-bred Goodbye Lucy.