OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Chi Town Lady may be the most high-profile name entered in Friday’s $100,000 allowance feature at Aqueduct, but the Grade 1 winner could be compromised by a small field that lacks the pace she needs to be most effective.
Chi Town Lady, winner of the Grade 1 Test at Saratoga in 2022, is likely headed to the breeding shed sometime in 2025 but her connections are using Friday’s one-mile race to see how much more is left in tank of the 5-year-old daughter of Verrazano, who hasn’t raced since a sixth-place finish in the Grade 1 Ballerina on Aug. 24.
“She’s training good. Hopefully she can pick up another win and money,” trainer Wesley Ward said. “She’s got to step it up and to show that she’s worthy of something bigger.”
Ward admitted that this five-horse field could work against Chi Town Lady in that it may lack the pace to set up her closing kick under Joel Rosario, who rides from post 4.
The likely horse to catch in this race is St. Benedicts Prep, who posted back-to-back allowance wins at Saratoga in front-running fashion. Both of those races were at seven furlongs. St. Benedicts Prep was off for two months before she ran in the Pumpkin Pie Stakes, where she finished fourth in a seven-horse field.
:: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets.
St. Benedicts Prep is winless in three starts at one mile, but two of those races came over Woodbine’s synthetic surface. Trainer Linda Rice likes the fact St. Benedicts Prep will be able to get back on Lasix, the anti-bleeding medication that is not permitted for use in stakes.
“I think that’ll be better for her and I think she’ll get the mile,” Rice said. “She trains like she’ll get the mile.”
Rice also sends out Movie Moxy, who cuts back to a mile after finishing second in the $145,000 Turnback the Alarm Stakes going 1 1/8 miles on Nov. 3. Movie Moxy has recorded four of her five career wins going a mile.
“I thought she ran great,” in the Turnback the Alarm, Rice said. “She’s been training very well and the mile is okay for her.”
Flavien Prat rides St. Benedicts Prep from post 3 while Jose Lezcano pilots Movie Moxy from post 5.
Stonewall Star returns to dirt – and one mile – after making her last two starts on turf for trainer Horacio De Paz. In March, Stonewall Star won the Biogio’s Rose Stakes for New York-breds going a one-turn mile from a pace-pressing position.
Dylan Davis rides Stonewall Star from post 3.
Captainsdaughter, based in the Mid-Atlantic with Russell Cash, was beaten a head by Cara’s Time in the Iroquois Stakes for New York-bred female sprinters here on Oct. 27. She stretches out to a mile for the first time since March 2023, when she finished fifth in the Biogio’s Rose. Javier Castellano rides.
This allowance race goes as the second on a nine-race card that begins at 12:10 p.m.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.