Short rest makes Momameamaria
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y » A short rest has paid dividends for Momameamaria, who makes her second start of the year in the $100,000 Shine Again Stakes at 7 furlongs on Wednesday.
Trainer David Cannizzo is very pleased with the 5-yearold daughter of Quality Road, who was second in this event last year at Saratoga.
She is owned by Two Tone Farms and ridden by Manuel Franco.
Following a sub-par effort in the Holiday Inaugural Stakes on the polytrack at Turfway Park last December, he decided to send her to the farm and give her two months off.
“She’s really doing things the right way since we brought her back,” said Cannizzo. “She’s always been a nervous type filly and I think the time off sort of let her mature. I know that sounds kind of crazy because it was only 60 days, but she never had a break from her yearling sale and her 2-year-old sale until she came to me. So really, she’s been going for four years.”
Momameamaria was prominent all the way in her return on July 3 at Belmont Park, scoring by a half-length at 6 ½ furlongs over the good filly Quezon.
“I think those two months allowed her to grow up and be a horse,” he said. “Knock on wood, she was perfect in the paddock at Belmont and mentally she held together and ran big. “I have never seen her act like she did that day. She beat a pretty nice group. And since that race she has trained great. She loves it up here. So I expect a big effort, although I don’t know if she’s good enough.”
Cannizzo was alluding to the presence of several accomplished opponents in the Shine Again, including Grade 1 winner Carina Mia, who leads the field in earnings by a wide margin at $1.1 million.
She makes her first start, and seeks her first victory, for new trainer Chad Brown since winning the Grade 1 Acorn in 2016.
Carina Mia was second to the brilliant Songbird in the Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga last year after the Acorn.
Going for Broke, also trained by Brown, makes her first start of the year.
She also finished second to Songbird last year at Saratoga, in the Alabama Stakes, and makes her first start at a sprint distance since her debut in April, 2016 at Aqueduct.
Indignant and Clip the coupon annie were second and third, respectively, two races back in the Grade 3 Distaff at this distance on April 9.
Completing the Shine Again field are Discreet Senorita, Absatootly, Birdatthtewire, Pawleys Express, and Wheatfield.