Rice loaded for Correction

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Linda Rice finished first and third in last year’s Correction Stakes at Aqueduct when Sounds Delicious went gate to wire while Startwithsilver rallied from last to just miss second.

Sounds Delicious and Startwithsilver, plus stablemates Sower and Honor Way, all were entered Wednesday by Rice for Saturday’s 79th renewal of the $100,000 Correction for fillies and mares at six furlongs.

The Correction drew just two other runners, Yorkiepoo Princess and Filibustin.

It is likely that Rice will start Sower, Sounds Delicious, and Startwithsilver. Rice said, “We’ll take a look at it” with Honor Way.

When Sounds Delicious won the Correction last March it was her fifth victory from her first six starts, her lone loss coming by a neck in allowance company.

She has dropped her last four starts, two before getting a break and two since returning. Most recently, she was beaten a head in an allowance race here on New Year’s Day.

“We’re hoping she regains her form,” Rice said. “If not, she’ll move on to the breeding shed. She had a setback, had a lot of time off, and sometimes you can never get them back to form.”

Startwithsilver will be making the second start off a layoff after finishing fifth in the Broadway Stakes on Feb. 16, a race she had won a year ago.

Sower is coming off a second in the Interborough on Jan. 25 and might prefer the turnback to six furlongs. She was entered in but scratched from the Heavenly Prize Stakes going a mile last Sunday.

Honor Way, third in the Interborough, is coming off a seventh-place finish in the Grade 3 Barbara Fritchie at Laurel last month.

Rounding out the Correction field are Yorkiepoo Princess, a four-time stakes winner who most recently ran fifth in the Interborough, and Filibustin, who is coming off a sixth in the Broadway.

Divine Miss Grey eyes big ones

Trainer Danny Gargan plans to take a less-is-more approach when it comes to Divine Miss Grey this year.

Gargan said he doesn’t envision Divine Miss Grey racing 10 times this year like she did in 2018, but he’s hoping to target some big races with the 5-yearold daughter of Divine Park.

“I’m not going to run her as much,” Gargan said Wednesday by phone from Ocala, Fla., where he was hoping to land the barn’s future big horse at the OBS March auction of 2-yearolds in training. “If I slow down, don’t run her as much, I’m hoping to get those big performances.”

Divine Miss Grey certainly gave a big performance last Sunday, winning the Heavenly Prize Invitational by three lengths in her first start in more than three months. She went gate to wire, turning back a stern challenge from Split Time before drawing away late. Divine Miss Grey earned a 96 Beyer Speed Figure for her performance, her sixth career stakes victory.

“I was really, really impressed,” Gargan said. “She’s a warrior. I’m just lucky that I have her.”

Gargan said Divine Miss Grey came out of the race in great shape and that he hasn’t definitively decided where she would run next. He does not plan on running her back in the Grade 3, $150,000 Distaff Handicap – a race she won last year – at Aqueduct on April 5 and may look to the Grade 1, $500,000 Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby Day.

With her victory in the Heavenly Prize, Divine Miss Grey improved her record to 12 for 25 and increased her career earnings to $929,372.