Aqueduct: Stakes-winning Lucky Stride bolsters Top Flight Invitational field

By Ryan Martin —-

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Sonata Stable’s Lucky Stride will look to build on consecutive stakes victories, diving into deeper waters as she competes against four fellow stakes-winners in Saturday’s 80th running of the $100,000 Top Flight Invitational for older fillies and mares going 1 1/8 miles on the main track at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Lucky Stride, trained by Michael Trombetta, enters off two stellar efforts in 2021, capturing the Wayward Lass on January 16 at Tampa Bay Downs and the Nellie Morse on February 20 at Laurel Park, both contested at 1 1/16 miles on dirt.

The daughter of Declaration of War was moved to Trombetta’s stable last summer after being campaigned in Puerto Rico, where she won 8-of-11 starts, including a Group 2 and Group 3 contest at Camarero. After making her United States debut with a fifth-place finish in the Grade 3 Shuvee in August at Saratoga Race Course, Trombetta moved Lucky Stride to the turf, including a fourth-place effort beaten 2 ¼ lengths in the 12-furlong Zagora on October 31 at Belmont.

“When we got her here from Puerto Rico, we really did not know how her form would transfer over, so the Shuvee ended up being the deep end of the pool,” Trombetta said. “She had a troubled trip that day but ran fantastic. I think she’s done everything right for us since the first time.”

It wasn’t until her 2021 debut when she would notch her first United States victory when coming from 13 lengths off the pace as the odds-on favorite to capture the Wayward Lass in her 5-year-old bow. She carried her newfound winning form over to Laurel Park in Maryland, where she secured a tactical journey and gained command in mid-stretch, carrying her advantage to a 1 ¼-length Nellie Morse win.

“She’s done very well for us and we’ve been extremely pleased,” Trombetta said. “When we got her to Florida, she won the stake at Tampa. We didn’t seem to have many choices of where to go with her, so ultimately we decided on bringing her north early and fortunately, she was good enough to win the Nellie Morse.”

Lucky Stride has remained in Maryland since her last out score and is training forwardly for Trombetta at Fair Hill Training Center. She arrives at the Top Flight off three sharp bullet works, the most recent of which was a half-mile move in 48.20 seconds on April 3.

Bred in Kentucky by Aschinger Bloodstock Holdings, Lucky Stride boasts a consistent 17-10-4-1 record and purse earnings of $231,550.

Jockey Manny Franco will pilot Lucky Stride from post 4.

Last Saturday, trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr. sent out the winners of two of the five graded stakes events on the Wood Memorial Day card at the Big A with Drain the Clock in the Grade 3 Bay Shore and Mischevious Alex in the Grade 1 Carter Handicap. He will try to sustain momentum when sending out Ken Copenhaver’s Queen Nekia in pursuit of a second straight stakes victory.

The 6-year-old dark bay Harlington veteran was a 29-1 upset winner of the Grade 3 Royal Delta on February 20 at Gulfstream Park, where she secured a trip along the rail under Corey Lanerie en route to a 1 3/4-length win. Queen Nekia was third beaten three-quarters of a length in last year’s Royal Delta, which was her second start for Joseph, Jr.

“She’s a filly that stays pretty strongly,” Joseph, Jr. said. “The strong pace upfront helped her so it became a stamina race. Corey did a great job of keeping her on the rail. She ran a really good third in the Royal Delta the year prior, so it seems like a race she runs well in each year.”

Joseph claimed Queen Nekia for $25,000 in December 2019 after a six-length romp going a one-turn mile at Gulfstream Park, and she followed with a triumph at the next condition up en route to a third in the Royal Delta. Her first stakes triumph took place in the seven-furlong Dance To Bristol on August 28 at Charles Town. Prior to her last out win, she was fourth to stable mate Gibberish in the Treasure Chest on November 20 at Delta Downs.

“We claimed her for $25,000 and normally a filly for that kind of money doesn’t turn out the way she has,” Joseph, Jr said. “She’s a very tall, good looking filly and she tries each and every time. After she ran in Louisiana, we had the Royal Delta in mind since she ran so well the year before.”

Jockey Jose Ortiz will ride Queen Nekia from post 2.

Hall of Famer Bill Mott sends out three-time graded stakes winner Horologist for her first start since running ninth in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Distaff on November 7 at Keeneland. The New Jersey-bred daughter of Gemologist won the Grade 3 Monmouth Oaks in 2019 for former trainer John Mazza and nearly a year later won the Grade 3 Molly Pitcher at Monmouth Park -registering a career-best 102 Beyer Speed Figure in her first start for Mott.

Prior to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, Horologist was a three-length winner of the Grade 2 Beldame on October 3 at Belmont Park over accomplished graded stakes winners Point of Honor and Dunbar Road.

Through a lifetime record of 20-7-2-4, Horologist boasts the highest bankroll in the field with earnings of $715,439.

Horologist breaks from post 5 and will be reunited with jockey Junior Alvarado.
Allen Stables’ Mrs. Danvers will be out for redemption following a distant fifth to Queen Nekia in the Grade 3 Royal Delta. The gray or roan Tapit 4-year-old was close to the pace in the 1 1/16-mile event but faded around the far turn.

Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey, a four-time Top Flight Invitational winner, saddled Mrs. Danvers to a victory in the Grade 3 Comely on November 27 at Aqueduct, where she led at every point of call to win by 6 ¼ lengths, recording a 102 Beyer.

A Kentucky homebred, Mrs. Danvers is out of the Awesome Again mare Gracie Square, who is a half-sister to prolific sire War Front as well as graded stakes-winners North Dakota, Teammate and Ecclesiastic.

Jockey Kendrick Carmouche will be aboard Mrs. Danvers from post 3.

Bass Stables’ Thankful was a distant seventh in the one-mile Heavenly Prize Invitational on March 6. The 4-year-old daughter of 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah will be seeing two turns for the first time since notching her first stakes victory in the Ladies Handicap on January 17 at Aqueduct, where she displayed tactical speed, battling in the upper stretch before taking control inside the sixteenth-pole for the win.

Trained by Todd Pletcher, a four-time winner of the Top Flight Invitational, Thankful broke her maiden at third asking going nine furlongs on August 20 at Saratoga Race Course before shortening up to a one-turn mile victory against winners on September 27 at Belmont.

Winter meet leading jockey Eric Cancel will ride Thankful from post 6.
Completing the field is Kasey K Racing and Michael Day’s Flashndynamite, who will try and build off a third-place finish in the last out Heavenly Prize Invitational. Trained by Michael Moore, the veteran Flashstorm mare earned her first trip to the Big A winner’s circle three starts back going a one-turn mile over stakes-placed Kansas Kis.

Jockey Trevor McCarthy rides Flashndynamite from post 1.

The Top Flight Invitational is named after C.V. Whitney’s dual champion and winner of prestigious races like the Acorn, Alabama, Spinaway and Coaching Club American Oaks and retired with a 16-12-0-0 record. Her accomplishments earned her Hall of Fame honors in 1966.

The Top Flight Invitational is slated as Race 5 on Aqueduct’s nine-race program. First post is 1:20 p.m. Eastern.

NYRA Bets is the official wagering platform of Aqueduct Racetrack, and the best way to bet every race of the winter meet. Available to horseplayers nationwide, the NYRA Bets app is available for download today on iOS and Android at www.NYRABets.com.

Wednesday, April 7, 2021

Decorated Invader highlights Aqueduct’s first turf stakes of 2021 in Danger’s Hour

By Brian Bohl —-

OZONE PARK, N.Y. — The year’s first turf stakes on the New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) circuit will mark the 2021 debut of three-time graded stakes-winner Decorated Invader, who will compete as part of an eight-horse field of 4-year-olds and up going one mile in Saturday’s $100,000 Danger’s Hour at Aqueduct Racetrack.

With turf racing returning for the 11-day spring meet at the Big A that started April 1 and will run through Sunday, April 18, the sixth running of the Danger’s Hour is one of two stakes on Saturday’s card, joining the $100,000 Top Flight Invitational for older fillies and mares going 1 1/8 miles on the main track.

Decorated Invader enters his 4-year-old year after posting three victories in six starts as a sophomore, including back-to-back Grade 2 scores in the one-mile Pennine Ridge by 4 3/4 lengths in June at Belmont Park and following with a 1 1/4-length victory in the Hall of Fame in July at Saratoga Race Course.

Trainer Christophe Clement, who won his first NYRA training title at the Aqueduct fall meet, will return to the track looking to see if Decorated Invader can win his Big A debut and boast of stakes wins at all three NYRA tracks.

“I’m excited about it; he’s training well and it’s all good,” Clement said. “He had a nice winter break. Him and [Grade 1-winner] Gufo had the same work pattern. They’ll both run at Belmont in the spring and I’m excited about both of them. Decorated Invader has been doing really good.”

Owned by West Point Thoroughbreds, William Freeman, William Sandbrook and Cheryl Manning, Decorated Invader will be entered off a nearly five-month break since ending his 2020 with a fifth-place finish in the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby going 1 1/8 miles at Del Mar. He has since been training at Payson Park in Florida, including a five-furlong work in 1:04.40 on Saturday.

The son of Declaration of War burst onto the scene with an impressive juvenile year in 2019, winning the Grade 1 Summer at the Danger’s Hour distance in September of that year at Woodbine Racetrack before running a competitive fourth in that year’s Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita. Last year, he followed up with three consecutive stakes wins at three tracks, starting with the one-mile Cutler Bay in March at Gulfstream Park before compiling his graded stakes wins.

While all of Decorated Invader’s stakes wins have come on firm turf, he ran second, just a head back to Get Smokin, in the one-mile Grade 2 Hill Prince over a yielding Belmont turf in October. The National Weather Service is calling for a 30 percent chance of rain Saturday for Ozone Park.

Jockey Junior Alvarado will pick up the mount for the first time, drawing post 4.
William Lawrence’s Analyze It is also a three-time graded stakes-winner, including the the Grade 3 Red Bank going one mile in September at Monmouth Park. Trained by four-time Eclipse Award-winner Chad Brown, Analyze It will be making his first appearance since an eighth-place effort in the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile on October 3 at Keeneland.

The son of Point of Entry, now in his 6-year-old year, ran just those two races in 2020. But his return to the track was impressive enough, as the Red Bank effort marked his first start in 22 months and first race since finishing third in the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Mile.

Analyze It won the 2018 Grade 3 Transylvania as a 3-year-old, kickstarting an impressive campaign that saw him finish as the runner-up in the Grade 3 Pennine Ridge, the Grade 1 Belmont Derby Invitational and the Grade 1 Secretariat. Overall, he is 4-3-1 in 10 starts with earnings of $853,150.

Jose Ortiz will ride in Analyze It’s Aqueduct debut, breaking from post 7.

Brown’s other entrant, the British-bred Delaware, will look to capitalize on class relief after ending last year with a 10th-place finish in the Grade 2 Ft. Lauderdale at Gulfstream before starting the year with an eighth-place effort in the Grade 3 Tampa Bay on February 6.

The 5-year-old son of Frankel’s last blacktype-earning effort came at Aqueduct when third in November’s Artie Schiller. Manny Franco will be in the irons from post 8.

Bond Racing Stable’s Rinaldi will be competing at two turns again, which owner and trainer H. James Bond said suits the now 5-year-old son of Posse’s strengths.

Rinaldi, bred in New York by Barry Ostrager, last raced in November, running fourth in the one-mile Artie Schiller over the turf labeled good. Though the gelding finished out of the money, he still capped his 2020 with a 96 Beyer Speed Figure, marking his highest since earning a personal-best 99 for his 1 1/2-length win in the 1 1/16-mile West Point over good turf at Saratoga in September.

After the Artie Schiller, Bond sent Rinaldi to his Song Hill farm close to Saratoga to rest and gear up for 2021. The conditioner said his charge responded well to the respite.

“He’s a solid horse who always shows up,” Bond said. “I think he’s better on two turns. Sometimes with softer turf…he likes to rattle his feet. That’s the only negative, I don’t think he’s as good as he is on a firm turf, but it’s all about the competition and how he handles it.”

Trevor McCarthy will have the call from post 2.

Godolphin’s Hieronymus, winner of four of his six career starts, will be racing for the first time since May for reigning Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox. The Kentucky homebred won two turf stakes at Fair Grounds last year, racking up consecutive scores in the Randy P. Romero Memorial and the Black Gold.

Kendrick Carmouche, fresh off his victory aboard 72-1 shot Bourbonic in last week’s Grade 2 Wood Memorial presented by Resorts World Casino, will look to sustain momentum, getting the call from the outside post.

Rounding out the field is Tiberius Mercurius, making his first start for trainer Tom Albertrani [post 5, Benjamin Hernandez] and Price Talk, who is cross-entered in an optional-claiming event Friday, was third last out in the Gio Ponti in November going 1 1/16 miles on the Aqueduct turf, for conditioner Jorge Abreu [post 3, Eric Cancel]; and Penalty, competing in his first stakes in 15 career starts, for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott [post 6, Pablo Morales]. Zoomer is entered for the main track only.

The Danger’s Hour is slated as Race 8 on the nine-race program. First post is 1:20 p.m. Eastern.

NYRA Bets is the official wagering platform of Aqueduct Racetrack, and the best way to bet every race of the winter meet. Available to horseplayers nationwide, the NYRA Bets app is available for download today on iOS and Android at www.NYRABets.com.