The Aqueduct fall meet opens Thursday with a focus on 2-year-old fillies, as the card features both the $150,000 Tempted and the $150,000 Chelsey Flower. There is also a maiden special weight for 2-year-old fillies bred in New York.
The Tempted was to have been run last Friday, but it was rescheduled when a forecast for high winds led to the cancellation of racing. The other stakes on the canceled card, the Pumpkin Pie, is rescheduled for Saturday.
Aqueduct has a nine-race card Thursday that begins at 12:10 p.m. Eastern. The title winners from the Belmont at Aqueduct meet that ended Sunday are all in the entries.
Paradise Farms Corp. and Linda Rice, who shared the owner title, are set to see action, as are leading rider Manny Franco and top trainer Chad Brown. Flavien Prat, who set a New York Racing Association record for jockey wins on a card with seven on Sunday, also is named on horses.
The Tempted, a one-turn mile, goes as the second race. The original field of five all re-entered, including the supplemented Spa Prospector. The graded stakes-placed runner was to have started from the rail last week but drew post 3 for Thursday. Jose Lezcano has the mount on the versatile Spa Prospector.
“She’s quick, but she doesn’t have to be quick,” said her trainer, Tom Amoss. “So that’s a great tactical advantage, to be able to place her wherever we want based on the pace. I think you can look for her to be forward but not necessarily on the lead, depending on what they do in the race.”
Spa Prospector could get an ideal trip just off rivals like Believable, Shilling, and Secane, who all won their last starts going wire to wire. Believable won at a mile at Aqueduct in her debut Sept. 28. She is a full sister to Tenfold, the millionaire who won the Jim Dandy. Kendrick Carmouche has the mount from post 5 for trainer Todd Pletcher.
Shilling won a seven-furlong maiden special weight in her second career start on Oct. 16 at Aqueduct. The Beyer Speed Figure of 75 she earned is the best career number in the Tempted. Christopher Elliott has the mount from post 2 for trainer Kenny McPeek.
Secane won over seven furlongs in her debut on Aug. 15 at Gulfstream Park. Edgard Zayas has the mount for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., who also starts turf debut winner Day to Day. She’s back on dirt, where she was fourth in the Grade 1 Spinaway, and will be ridden by Prat.
Spa Prospector will be making her first start beyond 6 1/2 furlongs, the distance over which she ran third to Mythical in the Grade 3 Adirondack in August at Saratoga. Spa Prospector earned a shot at stakes competition off a sharp maiden win at Saratoga in which she covered six furlongs in 1:10.94. It was her second start after she “gained a lot of education” in a debut in which she finished seventh, according to Amoss.
“When she ran the second time at Saratoga, we were really confident that she would run well,” he said of the 3 1/2-length win, for which she earned a Beyer of 74.
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Amoss said he likes the added distance on Thursday for Spa Prospector. She is by Authentic, winner of both the Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic, and her winning dam, Praying for Leslie, is by Bernardini. Spa Prospector brought $450,000 as a yearling at the Keeneland September sale. She races for Greg Tramontin’s Greenwell Thoroughbrds.
“She’s got a great pedigree,” Amoss said, noting that Spa Prospector is a half-sister to Grade 2 winner Praying and the Grade 1-placed Alys Beach.
Chelsey Flower
The Chelsey Flower will be run over 1 1/16 miles on the outer turf course. Brown and Prat will team with Deep Learning, who could go favored off a runner-up finish in the Grade 2 Miss Grillo at this distance Oct. 4 at Aqueduct.
The Miss Grillo winner, Ground Support, ran third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf last Friday at Del Mar. Others making up the eight-horse Chelsey Flower include Fillie d’Oro, who was fourth in the Miss Grillo. Franco has the mount for trainer Brad Cox.
Tideoftime makes her stakes debut for trainer Jimmy Toner after winning her first career start in a maiden special weight at a mile on turf Oct. 12 at Laurel Park. She is out of the Grade 1-winning mare Time and Motion.
◗ The final race for 2-year-old fillies on the card is the seventh, where New York-breds will travel 6 1/2 furlongs in a maiden special weight. Absolute Smoke and the Rice-trained Hot Currency exit a maiden race won by Letmecountheways, who returned in her next start to take the Maid of the Mist Stakes on Oct. 25 at Aqueduct. David Duggan trains Absolute Smoke, who was third to Letmecounttheways in the quick maiden race Sept. 27.
◗ The Aqueduct fall meet will showcase young talent all season, as there are 11 stakes for 2-year-olds through Dec. 31. The stakes schedule also includes the Grade 2, $500,000 Cigar Mile on Dec. 6.
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