Wraps coming off Silver Tornado

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Silver Tornado has the breeding and the skill to be a graded stakes winner. Now, the 3-year-old filly trained by Linda Rice can use Wednesday's featured $39,000 six-furlong allowance as a stepping-stone for what could be a successful 3-year-old year.

Silver Tornado is a half-sister to the Bob Baffert-trained 4-year-old El Corredor. El Corredor, the winner of the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct, and Silver Tornado are both out of the mare Silvery Swan. El Corredor was the first foal out of the mare, Silver Tornado the second. Futhermore, Silver Tornado is part of the first crop of 3-year-olds by Maria's Mon. Maria's Mon is the sire of this year's Kentucky Derby winner, Monarchos.

Silver Tornado, owned by Harry Quadracci, was purchased for $145,000 at the Ocala Breeders' Sale in March 2000. That summer, she easily broke her maiden first time out at Saratoga, and then came back to win by nearly nine lengths in an allowance at the Meadowlands Oct. 11. Since then, the filly has been sidelined, training well for a return to the races.

"After her second race, she looked like she needed a little time off," Rice said. "When we brought her back, a bout of colic delayed her return."

Silver Tornado was scheduled to return to the races in Saturday's Little Silver Stakes here, but Rice scratched her because of the sloppy track. Wednesday's eighth race is a much easier spot to return, and the filly will likely be a heavy favorite. According to Rice, the Grade 1 Prioress for 3-year-old fillies at Belmont July 4 is a possible next start for Silver Tornado if she comes out of Wednesday's race in fine condition.

Coa's hot, cold, and hot again

Eibar Coa won races six through eight on opening day, and then was winless Sunday, Thursday, and Friday. Coa, in his first meet here since moving in from the south Florida circuit, then snapped out of the losing streak by winning three races in a row on Saturday's card, including both of Saturday's stakes, the Wolf Hill and Little Silver.

Coa's momentum carried to Sunday, as he won an additional three races. He won the second and third race and the eighth race money allowance aboard Rize. He now has nine wins on the meet, two fewer than Joe Bravo, who is in first place with 11 victories. Bravo also had three wins Sunday, after missing Saturday's card in order to ride at Suffolk Downs for the Mass Cap card. He won the feature $50,000 Crank It Up Stakes.

Off the turf was the norm

The weekend's turf races were once again switched to the main track. Torrential downpours once again soaked the grass course, eliminating the weekend's two five-furlong turf sprint stakes - Saturday's Wolf Hill and Sunday's Crank It Up Stakes. The only stakes scheduled for the grass that wasn't moved to the dirt was the Grade 3 Red Bank on Memorial Day.

* Todd Pletcher had a profitable weekend at the shore, sending out two victorious fillies at low odds. He won Saturday's feature, the $50,000 Little Silver Stakes, with the impressive 3-year-old filly Harmony Lodge, who went gate to wire. The next day, the Pletcher-trained Tugger, a graded stakes finisher, won easily on the front end in the third race, a $41,000 optional claiming allowance.