Ms. Tart was claimed for $35,000 out of a win at Gulfstream Park in January. Since then, she has earned nearly $200,000 for owner Nathan McCauley and has won two stakes, including a first graded stakes score for trainer Kevin Rice.
Ms. Tart comes into Friday night’s Grade 2, $300,000 Presque Isle Masters as one of the headliners after winning the local prep.
“The owners picked her out, and they asked me about her and wanted to send her back here if she was good and kept running,” Presque Isle-based Rice said. “Everything just kept working out.”
The 6 1/2-furlong Masters, which has been won by Eclipse Award champions Informed Decision (2009-10), Musical Romance (2011), and Groupie Doll (2012-13), tops the biggest night of the year at Presque Isle Downs in Erie, Pa.
Also carded on the Tapeta track are the $150,000 Presque Isle Mile for older horses and a pair of $100,000 stakes for 2-year-olds, the Fitz Dixon Jr. Memorial Juvenile and Presque Isle Debutante.
After working her way through some allowance conditions at Gulfstream, Ms. Tart had a solid spring and summer at Woodbine. After finishing third in the Grade 3 Whimsical on the Tapeta, she rallied from last of 10 while nine wide to win the Grade 3 Royal North sprinting on turf – the first graded win for Rice, a member of an esteemed racing family who opened his stable in 2013.
Ms. Tart finished a troubled 10th in the Grade 2 Nassau when stretching out to a mile on turf and an even fourth back on Tapeta in the Grade 3 Hendrie. After that, Rice devised a plan to get her to the Masters via a local prep.
In her first start at Presque Isle, the tactically versatile filly was never far off the pace and drove to a 1 1/4-length victory in the Satin and Lace Stakes on Aug. 18.
“We’re right here at home, we get to stay home again,” Rice said. “It’s good timing.”
Only Hotshot Anna has won both the Satin and Lace and the Masters since the Masters was first run in 2007. She swept both races in 2018 and 2019.
Mitole Magic and Gal in a Rush were second and third, respectively, in the Satin and Lace.
Gal in a Rush will need some pace to rally into. That should develop in this overflow field, where several want to be positioned in a similar spot and will have to go eye to eye.
Gal in a Rush was third in the 2024 Masters behind Pandora’s Gift, who finished a close second in her first start in the United States and is back in Friday’s field. Pandora’s Gift hasn’t won stateside yet but is getting back on Tapeta for the first time in a year.
Multiple graded winner Elysian Field, consistent Ticker Tape Home, and comebacking Stormcast made up the trifecta in the Grade 3 Seaway at Woodbine last out and should transfer their form to this track. Stormcast should be better in her second start off a long layoff, as the Seaway was her first outing since a front-running win in the Grade 3 Bessarabian last November.
Ellen Jay also is making her second start off a layoff. A stakes winner sprinting on turf last October, she was a good third in the Smart and Fancy Stakes at Saratoga.
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