Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Mandella has rare N.Y. starter; sending Amuse for Correction
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – California-based trainer Richard Mandella will have a rare starter at Aqueduct on Saturday when he ships the 6-year-old mare Amuse cross-country to run in the $100,000 Correction Stakes.
Amuse will represent Mandella’s first starter at Aqueduct since Fare and Go finished fourth in a $25,000 claimer on Feb. 27, 2002. Mandella’s last starter on the New York Racing Association circuit was Beholder, who finished fourth in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps in June 2014.
The Correction is scheduled to be the last start for Amuse before she is bred to War Front this spring. It is one more chance to get a stakes victory, something that has eluded her in six previous tries. Two starts back, Amuse was beaten one length in the Kalookan Queen Stakes at Santa Anita. Most recently, though, she was a wellbeaten fifth in the Grade 2 Santa Monica.
“I thought she’d run her best race last time,” Mandella said. “It wasn’t a bad effort, but it wasn’t her best so I’m hoping for that on Saturday.”
Amuse is a daughter of Medaglia d’Oro owned by Claiborne Farm, Adele Dilschneider, Ramona Bass, and Perry Bass II.
Mandella has Kendrick Carmouche, the meet’s leading jockey, to ride Amuse. Mandella shipped the horse to trainer Jimmy Jerkens earlier in the week. Noting that Jerkens won last Saturday’s Grade 3 Gotham with 45-1 shot Weyburn, Mandella said, “I told him to put his magic on her.”
The Correction drew a field of seven and will go as race 9 on a 10-race card. The field, from the rail out, is Kansas Kis, Sadie Lady, Amuse, Call On Mischief, Jump for Joy, Awesome Debate, and Prairie Fire.
The two-time stakes winner Dontletsweetfoolya was going to come but a case of equine herpesvirus on the backstretch of Laurel Park – where the filly is based with trainer Lacey Gaudiet – prevented her from shipping to New York. Horses based at Laurel are prohibited from leaving the grounds during the time the facility’s barns are under quarantine. Further, NYRA is not accepting shippers from Laurel or Pimlico for the time being.
Return the Ring’s race canceled
Unable to find a suitable allowance race in New York, trainer Eddie Barker thought he had found a good alternative for his 3-year-old colt Return the Ring at Laurel Park – a first-level allowance race going six furlongs. But the quarantine in place at Laurel in the wake of a confirmed test for equine herpesvirus will prevent Return the Ring from shipping to Maryland.
“It would have been the perfect race,” Barker said.
Now, Barker said he will have to train Return the Ring up to the Grade 3, $200,000 Bay Shore Stakes on April 3 at Aqueduct.
Return the Ring, a son of Speightster, won his debut on Nov. 28 at Aqueduct. He didn’t run again until Jan. 31, when he finished second, beaten a head, by Hello Hot Rod in the Jimmy Winkfield Stakes at Aqueduct.
Since then, Barker has been seeking an allowance in New York going six or seven furlongs, and it hasn’t filled.
“I put him in one and he was the only in the race,” Barker said.
First juveniles work
Temperatures in the mid-60s on Tuesday in the New York area were not the only sign that spring is around the corner.
On Monday, a couple of 2-year-olds had their first recorded workouts at Belmont Park.
Diva Ready, a 2-year-old filly by More Than Ready, and Speak Unity, a 2-year-old colt by Union Rags, went three furlongs together in 38.22 seconds.
Both 2-year-olds are owned and bred by George Strawbridge and trained by Jonathan Thomas.
Thomas said both horses would be considered for either dirt or turf. Speak Unity is a full brother to Talking, a Thomas trainee who won first out on the turf.
“The way he breezed, he handled the dirt pretty well,” Thomas said.
The first 2-year-old dirt races on this circuit are scheduled for Belmont Park on April 22, for fillies, and April 23, for males. The first juvenile turf races are May 6 and 7.
Meanwhile, Nicky the Vest, who Thomas is pointing to the Wood Memorial on April 3, worked a half-mile in 48.82 seconds by himself over the Belmont training track on Monday.