Eight go in evenly matched in Shine Again
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » Today’s $100,000 Shine Again Stakes honors the sprinting star of the same name who hit the board in 31 of 34 starts and earned almost $1.3 million during her five-year career. The daughter of Wild Again, who was conditioned by Hall of Fame trainer H. Allen Jerkens, won back-to-back editions of the Ballerina Handicap (G1) in 2001 and 2002 and was runner-up in that race as a 6-year-old in 2003.
All of which is appropriate, as the Shine Again is often used as a prep for the Ballerina. For this reason, the race has drawn some top-class sprinters in its brief five-year history. In 2014, the first three finishers – Better Lucky, Grace Hall and My Miss Aurelia – were all (or became) millionaires and Grade 1 winners. Subsequent Shine Again winners Unbridled Forever, BC F&M Sprint winner Wavell Avenue and Carina Mia were also among the best of their division.
There are no millionaires or Grade 1 winners – or graded winners at any level – in this year’s Shine Again. The morning-line favorite at 2-1 is Your Love, a 4-yearold Flatter filly who has been in the exacta in all but one of her seven starts. After narrow wins in her first two races, Your Love found the waters a bit too deep in the Grade 1 Test, finishing sixth. The Shine Again is her second start off a seven-month layoff. She comes in off a runner-up finish in a six-furlong optional claimer on June 28.
Heavenly Score (3-1) is the only entrant with a victory over the Shine Again’s seven furlongs. That came last December at Aqueduct. The Arkansas-bred daughter of Even the Score runs back today after a strong third in the Intercontinental Stakes (G3) on June 7, her first try in graded company.
Come Dancing (7-2), a 4-yearold Malibu Moon filly, has made it to the races just four times. She won three of them, however, most recently a six-furlong optional claimer here one week ago. It was her first start after being away from the races for six months.
Carienn (9-2) has been in the money in all six 2018 starts. Her two wins came in allowances at Laurel. The First Dude filly has finished third in both starts for new trainer Graham Motion. In her first try in graded competition, she lost ground late in the Bed O Roses (G3), and then was beaten less than a length in the Dashing Beauty Stakes at Delaware Park.
Yorkiepoo Princess’s (8-1) best finish in a graded event was a second in the Charles Town Oaks two starts back. She has not been back in the winner’s circle, though, since a three-race stakes streak at Aqueduct the winter before last. In her most recent effort, after nine months away from the races, Yorkiepoo Princess was caught late in a six-furlong optional claimer on a muddy track at Belmont.
Impasse (12-1), Wonderment (15-1) and Aura Rose (20-1) round out the field.