An ungraded stakes race with a $135,000 purse isn’t usually where you’ll find global powers Godolphin and Coolmore tackling each other, but Sunday’s Tepin Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Aqueduct offers such a showdown when Godolphin’s She’s All Charm meets Coolmore’s Isle of Capri in the one-mile event that will be the final turf race of the year in New York.
Trainer Brendan Walsh, who trains several horses for Godolphin, including the Grade 1-winning 2-year-old colt East Avenue, will be on the other team Sunday as he conditions Isle of Capri, the only horse he currently trains for Coolmore. A daughter of Munnings, Isle of Capri was a sharp four-length debut winner of a 6 1/2-furlong race on Sept. 11 at Kentucky Downs.
“She was very professional, always been like that at home,” Walsh said. “I wasn’t really surprised, though you don’t really expect them to be as sharp as she was the first time out as a 2-year-old. She’s a nice filly.”
Walsh had Isle of Capri entered in the Jessamine Stakes on Oct. 4 at Keeneland, but the filly acted up in the gate and was ordered scratched by the track veterinarian.
“She had a problem at the gate, she’s not a problem gate horse,” Walsh said. “She’s going to be real nice next year, that’s why we haven’t been in any rush to run her back.”
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Frankie Dettori, who rode She’s All Charm to an allowance win, is riding Isle of Capri from post 4.
Joel Rosario has picked up the mount on She’s All Charm, a Godolphin homebred by More Than Ready trained by Eoin Harty, who will be starting his first horse at Aqueduct in 12 years. She’s All Charm is 2 or 3 with a maiden win at Ellis Park in August and an allowance win on Oct. 11 at Keeneland sandwiched around a sixth-place finish in the Untapable Stakes at Kentucky Downs in September.
Harty added blinkers to She’s All Charm’s equipment for the Keeneland race, which turned out to be the faster of two divisions of the split race. Reining Flowers beat Presha by a nose in the slower division, and both of those fillies also are in the Tepin.
Harty felt the blinkers “made a considerable difference” in the way She’s All Charm performed in her last start.
“She’s a little bit quirky in the mornings,” Harty said. “I trained her in blinkers before she ever ran, didn’t run her in blinkers first start and she won so it’s hard to put blinkers on off a win. She was quite green at Kentucky Downs. I am going to cut them back a bit, they won’t be the full cups that she ran in at Keeneland.”
Harty likes what he’s seen from She’s All Charm since that allowance win.
“She certainly hasn’t regressed at all,” he said. “She trains like a nice filly. She has a good pedigree and she enjoys what she does. She’s competitive. I expect her to run very well.”
Laurelin was a good-looking debut winner of a 1 1/16-mile maiden race on Oct. 13 at Aqueduct. She made multiple moves in the race, advancing into contention down the backstretch after Kendrick Carmouche reacted to the slow early factions, then made a wide and ultimately winning move in the stretch. The only horse to run back out of that race, sixth-place finisher Winning Streep, won a maiden race at Gulfstream Park.
“She’s very straightforward in the mornings, very kind to train, she hasn’t done anything wrong since” her debut, trainer Graham Motion said. “This seemed pretty logical.”
Reining Flowers will be making her sixth start of the year. She has won twice, the only two times John Velazquez was aboard. Velazquez rides again Sunday.
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She’s Our Tiz overcame some fractious behavior at the gate to run a credible third behind Opulent Restraint in the Chelsey Flower Stakes.
Good Long Cry won a maiden race here Thursday by 6 1/4 lengths, and while they contemplated running her back, on Friday they decided not to, according to part-owner Jake Ballis. That would allow Annie Goodbody to draw in from the also-eligible list.
Miriam’s Fire, Roshiell My Belle, and Pookie complete the body of the race. Five G and Good Conduct, in order, need scratches to draw in.
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