Fri, 06/27/2025 - 12:44

Sunday Girl tries turf in Hettinger; $45,780 pick six carryover

Barbara D. Livingston
Sunday Girl has been away since March 2, when she won the Correction Stakes.

Sunday Girl’s ability to handle the turf will be the key when the two-time stakes winner tries grass for the first time Sunday at Aqueduct in the $125,000 John Hettinger. The Hettinger is carded at six furlongs and lured a field of seven New York-bred fillies and mares that also includes the Miguel Clement-trained multiple stakes winners Silver Skillet and Loon Cry.

The John Hettinger, race 8, is the fifth race in the pick six sequence that features a $45,780 carryover.

Sunday Girl has not started since registering a hard-fought nose decision over St. Benedicts Prep to defeat open company in the Correction Stakes at Aqueduct on March 2. The win was the sixth in as many starts over a fast main track for the daughter of Central Banker, her only two career defeats having come over muddy surfaces during her 3-year-old campaign. Five of those wins came with regular rider Katie Davis aboard.

Trained by David Duggan, Sunday Girl was given some time off following her gritty effort in the Correction, with a switch to the turf the best option to kick off the second half of the season.

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“We were waiting for the Dancing Renee and Union Avenue but when they wrote the new stakes program, they eliminated both races,” Duggan explained. “We looked at a race at Delaware but that came up too tough, so this one became the next best option. She couldn’t be doing better although obviously trying turf is a big variant, a big question.”

Duggan said he has breezed Sunday Girl on grass in the past and that she got over it well enough to give him confidence to make the surface switch.

“She worked on it last summer at Saratoga for an allowance race, which she ultimately won after it came off the grass, and she handled it fine,” said Duggan. “Obviously this is not ideal, you’d love to stay in your safe zone, but this is as much a fact-finding mission as anything else. She’s pretty much out of conditions and probably just a notch below Grade 1 and Grade 2 company. But if this turns out well, it opens up a lot of new options for her as the season progresses.”

Clement acknowledged that Sunday Girl could prove the one to catch in the Hettinger but is confident both his fillies are sitting on big efforts. Silver Skillet is turning back in distance and Loon Cry returns against statebred company for the first time since an allowance victory at Saratoga during the summer of 2023.

“Duggan’s filly may be the lone speed but she’s trying the trip for the first time,” Clement said. “Silver Skillet will be cutting back in distance, but that’s not the worst idea and she’s training great. Loon Cry is running here by default because I have no other options for her over the next several weeks and I might as well keep her with New York-breds if I can. She’s also training very well and I expect her to get back to her winning ways.”

Golden Rocket, a New York-bred stakes winner over the main track last fall at Aqueduct, Sugar Bee, Sinead, and Soloshot round out the field.

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