OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Beach Bomb strung together four solid races during the winter and spring that indicated she could be a significant player in the older filly and mare turf division this year.
Then came her last two outings. Dull efforts in the Grade 2 Beverly D. at Colonial Downs in August and the Grade 3 Ladies Marathon at Kentucky Downs in September have left trainer Graham Motion a bit confused.
Having found nothing amiss with the 5-year-old South African-bred mare, Motion has decided to give Beach Bomb another try in a graded racing, opting for Sunday’s Grade 3, $175,000 Waya Stakes at Aqueduct.
“She acts fine in the morning. I haven’t seen her miss a beat in the morning,” Motion said. “I don’t know if she’ll run again next year. She seems to be in good form, so we’ll take a shot in this race.”
The Waya is run at 1 3/8 miles around three turns at Aqueduct. In May, Beach Bomb finished a solid second behind Bellezza in the Grade 3 Sheepshead Bay, also a three-turn, 1 3/8-mile race at Aqueduct. That followed two Grade 3 stakes wins around three turns at Gulfstream Park.
“This hopefully is more of what she wants to do,” Motion said. “The extra distance and three turns suit her style.”
Motion also sends out Sirona, a 5-year-old German-bred mare who finished second to the Motion-trained No Show Sammy Jo in the All Along Stakes on Sept. 13 at Laurel Park.
“I ran her quite quickly after I got her, now I’m running her back quite quickly again,” Motion said. “She’s never gone this far. She acts like she would handle it. She galloped on past Sammy Jo last time at Laurel. We rode her fairly conservatively knowing she would need the race. I would think she’d move forward and hopefully she handles the distance.”
No Show Sammy Jo, by the way, has been cataloged for the Keeneland November sale on Nov. 3 and will not race again, Motion said.
Miguel Clement elected to keep Grade 2 Flower Bowl winner Bellezza out of the Waya and train her up to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. Sunday, he is going with La Mehana, last year’s Waya winner, and Youknownothing.
La Mehana won the Grade 2 Glens Falls by 8 3/4 lengths in July at Saratoga over yielding ground, the kind on which she moves up significantly. The ground will be firm Sunday, and she did win the 2024 Waya over turf labeled firm.
Trainer Chad Brown was planning to run Grade 1 Diana winner Excellent Truth in the Waya but didn’t like the way she was moving earlier in the week and has elected to get her examined. Instead, Brown will go with Village Voice and Alimara in the Waya.
Village Voice, a 5-year-old English-bred daughter of Zarak, has not raced in a year. She had been working with the Excellent Truth leading up to this.
“Although she’s off a very long layoff, when you put that aside she’s a very logical horse for this race based on her form and what I’m seeing with her works,” Brown said. “She’s more than held her own with Excellent Truth in recent weeks.
“Anytime you’re running this far off a layoff it’s always a concern.” Brown added. “That said, we get horses ready off a layoff in this category, so we’ll see. It’s a pretty tall order, there’s no getting around that.”
Alimara is coming off a first-level allowance win going this distance Aug. 24 at Saratoga. She was being pointed to a race at Keeneland, but was re-routed here after Brown withdrew Excellent Truth.
Big Beautiful, an recent allowance winner going 1 1/16 miles on Sept. 1 at Saratoga; Lady Firefoot; and American Sonja, Alluring Angel, and Noir – the third-, fourth-, and sixth-place finishers from an Aug. 28 allowance race at Saratoga – complete the field.
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