Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
BELMONT Mother Goose coming up strong
The Mother Goose Stakes has lost some luster in recent years, but it’s likely to feature a marquee matchup Saturday at Belmont Park.
Trainer Steve Asmussen on Sunday confirmed that Midnight Bisou, pending a Monday workout at Churchill Downs, will run in the Grade 2, $250,000 Mother Goose. So, too, will Road to Victory, the only horse to have defeated Monomoy Girl, the easy leader of the 3-year-old filly division after wins in the Ashland, the Kentucky Oaks, and the Acorn – all Grade 1’s.
Also expected to be entered in the 1 1/16-mile Mother Goose, according to New York Racing Association stakes coordinator Andrew Byrnes, are Coach Rocks, Indy Union, and My Miss Lily.
Gio Game had been considered a likely runner in the race, and she worked in company Friday at Belmont with stablemate Road to Victory (halfmile over the main track in 48.02 seconds), but trainer Mark Casse said he was leaning toward running Gio Game on July 7 in the Delaware Oaks and putting Road to Victory in the Mother Goose.
“I’ve been kind of flopping back and forth on it, but right now the plan is to run” Road to Victory, Casse said. “They worked together the other day, and both went very well.”
Unbeaten Road to Victory won both her starts at age 2, including a narrow win over Monomoy Girl in the Golden Rod Stakes last November at Churchill Downs, but she was slow to return to the races this year as a 3-year-old. Casse said about 2 1/2 months ago he mapped out a plan for Road to Victory to make her seasonal bow in the Alywow Stakes, a seven-furlong turf race at Woodbine, before going on to the Mother Goose, and so far, that plan has worked.
“The Alywow seemed like a good place to get her back since she had no conditions, we didn’t want to run against older horses, and she already had been successful on the Woodbine turf course” winning a maiden race last fall, Casse said.
Midnight Bisou, meanwhile, will race for the first time since finishing third as the 2-1 favorite behind Monomoy Girl and the Casse-trained Wonder Gadot in the Kentucky Oaks. Owned by Allen Racing LLC and Bloom Racing Stable, Midnight Bisou makes her first start since being moved from California-based trainer Bill Spawr into Asmussen’s barn, a trainer change, Midnight Bisou’s connections said, based entirely on the greater availability of important 3-year-old filly stakes races on the East Coast and the paucity of such opportunities in California.
Midnight Bisou has worked four times since the May 4 Oaks, including a major sixfurlong in-company drill in 1:12 on June 18.
“She worked awesome,” Asmussen said.
Midnight Bisou, who won the Santa Anita Oaks in April, was to ship Tuesday to Belmont following her Monday work. Mike Smith will retain the mount in the Mother Goose.
Got Stormy has options
Opening day at Saratoga, or opening Saturday at Del Mar?
Those are the options before the connections of Got Stormy, who followed her win in the $200,000 Penn Oaks with a victory Saturday at Belmont in the Wild Applause Stakes. Both races were turf miles, and trainer Mark Casse and owner Gary Barber had initially planned to make that Got Stormy’s maximum distance.
But there is reason, Casse said, to think the filly might get a little farther, and thus she is being considered for $150,000 Lake George Stakes over 1 1/16 miles on July 20 at Saratoga.
The Del Mar race for Got Stormy is the $200,000 San Clemente over one mile on July 21.
“We had been trying to keep her at a mile or less, but talking to Johnny [Velazquez] this morning, he seems to think she can go farther than a mile,” Casse said Sunday.
Got Stormy, a daughter of Get Stormy, was a $45,000 2-year-old auction buy. Barber privately purchased her following a fourth-place maiden finish at Gulfstream Park this past January in her second start.
Mo Diddley adds distance
Mo Diddley tried New Yorkbred company for the first time June 3 – and he liked it. But how will he feel about a longer distance and tougher competition in the featured eighth race Wednesday at Belmont?
Mo Diddley is one of seven entered in a 1 1/16-mile statebred-restricted second-level allowance race also open to $40,000 claimers. Macagone and Cloontia were entered under the claiming option, and Macagone particularly stands a solid chance.
As for Mo Diddley, a 3-year-old facing elders but getting a fivepound weight-for-age break, his first four starts came in open competition at Churchill and Saratoga. Casse put him in a New York-bred first-level allowance last month, and Mo Diddley won by the better part of two lengths. But that race came at seven furlongs, and Mo Diddley has no proven form at Wednesday’s distance.
Macagone, a 7-year-old with a bankroll of more than a halfmillion dollars, drops to his lowest class level in years seeking his first win in 14 months.
If Tribecca is just in this for dirt and is scratched if the race stays on turf, Cloontia could wind up as the lone speed.
As interesting as anyone is Gucci Factor, who appeared to struggle in a sloppy-track comeback race May 19 and won well in a New York-bred first-level allowance last December in just the second turf try of his career.
◗ Lull, who was third in the Grade 1 Just a Game on the June 9 Belmont Stakes undercard, and La Sardane, who won the Grade 3 Intercontinental Stakes two days earlier, head the list of expected entrants for the $150,000 Perfect Sting on Saturday. Other expected entrants are Heavenly Score, Lido, Pas de Soucis, and Thais.