Winter Memories eyeing Beaugay for return

Winter Memories, who has not started since finishing fourth in the Grade 1 QEII Cup at Keeneland on Oct. 15, is training like a horse just about ready to run. But trainer James Toner said his Grade 1 winner may not make her 2012 debut until May 5 at Belmont in the Grade 3 Beaugay.

Winter Memories, runner-up in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and winner of the Grade 1 Garden City last fall at Belmont, has had six workouts over the Palm Meadows turf course since returning to training this winter, including a bullet five-eighths in 58.33 seconds on Monday.

“She’s doing super,” Toner said. “We could run her in the Jenny Wiley at Keeneland, but that race is coming up in three weeks and this was just her first five-eighths work, so it would be a little tight. Besides, her race last year at Keeneland wasn’t the greatest. I think I might just keep her here until mid-April, that way I can get more work into her over the grass at Palm Meadows. Even though it’s been pretty mild up north this winter, you just can’t trust the weather up there.”