Curly Girl opts for softer spot

After Curly Girl won the Sept. 27 Lady Finger Stakes at Finger Lakes, she easily could have moved on to last week’s New York Breeders’ Futurity there. But the filly instead waited an extra week between starts and faces softer competition in the $50,000 Shesastonecoldfox Stakes, one of two six-furlong stakes for New Yorkbred juveniles on Monday’s card at Finger Lakes.

The Shesastonecoldfox is for fillies, and the Tin Cup Chalice is for 2-year-old males.

Curly Girl, who is trained by Paul Barrow, was fourth in a statebred maiden special weight on a sloppy track at Saratoga to begin her career. Coming home to Finger Lakes, she faced open company in a maiden race and won by 4 1/4 lengths. She then stepped up to stakes company and rallied to win the Lady Finger by 1 1/2 lengths on Sept. 27.

Andre Worrie, aboard for all three of her starts, retains the mount.

Curly Girl’s chief competition will be Shesawildjoker, who has been facing strong competition on the NYRA circuit for trainer David Donk. After beating statebreds at Belmont in her debut, she finished eighth in the Grade 2 Adirondack Stakes at Saratoga.

Shesawildjoker regrouped against statebreds, and finished a distant third in the Joseph A. Gimma Stakes on Sept. 24 at Belmont. Her Beyer Speed Figure of 55 for that effort bests the 52 earned by Curly Girl in the Lady Finger as the top number in this field.

The field of eight is completed by Finger Lakes maiden special weight winners Eros’s Girl,

Thin Legs, and Tosconova Beauty; maiden-claiming winners Saratoga Kisses and She’s a Big Deal; and the maiden Racing Queen.

One race earlier, a lightly raced field of six will line up for the $50,000 Tin Cup Chalice. The field is made up of Finger Lakes maiden winners Cut the Cord, Do in’ it the right way, I Found It, and Kenny Hustle, and the debut starters Dragon Ballet and Price of Admission.

Among the quartet with experience, Kenny Hustle is the morning-line favorite for trainer Stacy Torelli. After finishing second to Cut the Cord and I Found It in maiden efforts, he zipped to a frontrunning 6 1/4-length victory on Oct. 11 at Finger Lakes. His Beyer of 61 from that race is the best in the field.

Monday’s stakes are named for a pair of New York-bred champions who were based at Finger Lakes, where they are members of the track’s hall of fame. Shesastonecoldfox won the first four starts of her career in 2001, including the Lady Finger and New York Breeders’ Futurity at Finger Lakes, and the Joseph A. Gimma Stakes at Belmont before starting in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. She was honored as the champion New York-bred juvenile filly of that season.

Tin Cup Chalice, a stakes winner at Finger Lakes as a juvenile, was the state’s champion 3-year-old male of 2008, sweeping the Big Apple Triple, winning the Grade 2 Indiana Derby, and earning an invitation to compete in the Japan Cup Dirt. The gelding died in a training accident the following spring.