Hot Fudge tests winning streak

A neck separated Hot Fudge and Kant Hurry Love on Dec. 9 in the Garland of Roses Stakes, and those two mares are set to meet again Saturday at Aqueduct in the $100,000 Correction Stakes.

The six-furlong dash for older fillies and mares drew a field of eight light on accomplishment. Only Hot Fudge has won an open stakes race, and among the other entrants, Kant Hurry Love and Secret Love are the other two stakes winners, with those victories coming against New York-bred competition.

Hot Fudge brings a fourrace winning streak into the Correction and almost certainly will be favored under Kendrick Carmouche. She starts for trainer Adam Rice, the nephew of trainer Linda Rice, who has trained Hot Fudge throughout her 12-start career but began serving a 14-day suspension March 3 for a phenylbutazone overage found in one of her starters following a January 2023 race. Linda Rice won the Correction in 2018 and 2019.

Hot Fudge, a Liam’s Map mare owned by KEM Stables, only once in her career has earned a Beyer Speed Figure over 90 but has found one sweet spot after another. A capable 2-year-old of 2021, Hot Fudge was off for more than two years, returning in January of 2023, and has now gone on to win six of her last seven dirt starts.

Hot Fudge might best suit races at seven furlongs or one mile, but while she tends to lead in races over that trip, she possesses a versatile running style and has been willing to rate off the leaders in shorter sprints like the Correction. She’s well drawn in post 5, breaking outside the other speed in Baba, and can sit a good trip stalking rail-drawn Music City Star and habitual front-runner Quick Munny.

Quick Munny comes in fresh, her most recent race Dec. 17, and her speed could prove effective if she’s able to outrun Music City Star and get to the fence. Rob Atras trains Quick Munny and has won the last two renewals of the Correction, with Rossa Veloce in 2023 and Sadie Lady in 2021 (the race wasn’t run in 2022).

Still, it’s Kant Hurry Love who clearly has the best chance of taking down Hot Fudge. Kant Hurry Love, another 5-year-old, raced nine times in 2023 alone compared to Hot Fudge’s dozen career starts, and Kant Hurry Love didn’t even find herself until last season. The New Yorkbred Kantharos mare, trained for her last nine starts by David Duggan, required seven tries to clear the New York-bred maiden ranks and won just once in her first 10 trips to the post.

But Kant Hurry Love was a new horse last year at age 4. She won two straight statebred allowance races to start her season and didn’t stop there, landing the restricted Dancing Renee in June and finishing second in the Union Avenue in August. Post position might have made the difference in the Garland of Roses, where Kant Hurry Love broke from the rail and had to take back after being outrun through the first half-furlong. Hot Fudge, meanwhile, pulled a perfect stalking trip racing from third, getting the jump on Kant Hurry Love, whose 12.73-second final furlong fell just short of victory.

Freshened 10 weeks, Kant Buy Love returned with a modest third Feb. 17 in the New York-bred Broadway Stakes. At seven furlongs, that race was farther than Kant Hurry Love’s best distance, and it should have her set up to give Hot Fudge all she wants – perhaps more – in the Correction.