Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Sunny Ridge cutting back
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – That trainer Jason Servis entered a horse in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Toboggan Stakes at Aqueduct is hardly surprising. That his starter is Sunny Ridge, well, that is somewhat surprising.
Sunny Ridge has won 8 of 28 starts and earned $1.4 million in a career that began in June 2015. He has never raced at seven furlongs, the distance of Toboggan. Moreover, Servis has won the last two sprint stakes on this circuit with Happy Farm, who won the Grade 3 Fall Highweight, and Firenze Fire, who won the Gravesend, both in December.
Sunny Ridge, meanwhile, is coming out of a victory in the Richard Small Stakes, a twoturn, 1 1/8-mile race on Nov. 30 at Laurel Park.
“I kind of always wanted to try him seven-eighths,” Servis said Wednesday by phone from South Florida. “He always breaks on top. He’s a good gate horse, he breaks running.”
Sunny Ridge drew the rail in a field of nine entered in the Toboggan, a race that marks the return of multiple Grade 1 winner Mind Control. Mind Control is making his first start since he won the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens last Aug. 24 at Saratoga.
Sunny Ridge, a 7-year-old gelding by Holy Bull, is 2 for 10 in races contested around one turn. He won his career debut going 4 1/2 furlongs at Monmouth in June 2015. In July 2018, he won the State Dinner Stakes going 1 1/16 miles at Belmont.
In between, he’s won six stakes around two turns, though he’s run some strong races going a one-turn mile. As a 2-year-old, he finished second to Greenpointcrusader in the Grade 1 Champagne. In 2018, he finished third to Patternrecognition in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile after finishing second behind that one in the Grade 2 Kelso.
In two of the last three winters here, Sunny Ridge has run in the Jazil Stakes, which this year will be held Jan. 25. Servis will run Leitone, winner of the Claiming Crown Jewel, in that race.
Meanwhile, Servis said Firenze Fire and Happy Farm are both candidates for the Grade 3, $250,000 General George on Feb. 15 at Laurel.
Breaking outside of Sunny Ridge in the Toboggan, in post order, are American Anthem, Arch Cat, Nicodemus, T Loves a Fight, Bon Raison, Still Having Fun, Mind Control, and The Sicarii. Arch Cat and Still Having Fun are cross-entered in Saturday’s $100,000 Fire Plug Stakes going 6 1/2 furlongs at Laurel Park.
Saturday’s Aqueduct card also includes the $100,000 Franklin Square Stakes for New York-bred 3-year-old fillies. The race marks the return to the races of Fierce Lady, a stakeswinning 2-year-old filly of 2019 trained by Dermot Magner. Fierce Lady has been off since running second in the Joseph A. Gimma Stakes on Sept. 18. She drew the rail on Saturday.
Big Q, who ran sixth as the favorite in the $500,000 Fifth Avenue division of the New York Stallion Stakes on Dec. 15, will look to rebound. She drew post 2.
Outside of Big Q, in post order, are, Firenze Freedom, Myawaya, Violent Point, Ancient Brown, A Freud of Mama, and Playtone.
Pletcher pair likely for Ladies
Bellera, winner of the Grade 3 Comely, and Another Broad, winner of the Top Flight Invitational in April, give trainer Todd Pletcher a potent 1-2 punch for Sunday’s $100,000 Ladies Handicap. Bellera, a 4-year-old daughter of Bernardini, is the 123-pound highweight, while Another Broad, runner-up in the Grade 3 Turnback the Alarm Handicap in November, is the second highweight at 121 pounds.
Others under consideration to start in the Ladies, which will be contested for the 149th time on Sunday, are Held Accountable (118 pounds), Our Super Nova (118), Lucky Move (117), Nonsensical (115), and Annie Rocks (114).
Saguaro Row to Interborough
There will be live racing on Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, at Aqueduct, with the feature being in the $100,000
Interborough Stakes for fillies at mares at seven furlongs.
Saguaro Row, winner of the Pumpkin Pie Stakes in November and runner-up to Spiced Perfection in the Grade 3 Go for Wand in December, looms the horse to beat.
Others under consideration for the race include Abounding Joy, Champagne Bliss, Honr Way, New Year’s Wish, and Slimey.
Options for Montauk Traffic
Montauk Traffic, a 4 1/2length maiden winner here Dec. 28, worked five furlongs in 1:01.66 on Wednesday morning and could be a candidate for either the Grade 2, $250,000 Withers Stakes on Feb. 1 or the $100,000 Jimmy Winkfield Stakes on Feb. 8.
Montauk Traffic worked in company with Devil’s Code, galloping out six furlongs in 1:14.51 while leaving his company.
Montauk Traffic actually debuted Dec. 14 at Laurel. He dwelt at the start and was never persevered with during the race by Jevian Toledo though the horse did earn a “solid gallop-out” comment from the chart caller. Eager to move on from that race, trainer Linda Rice wheeled Montauk Traffic back in two weeks at Aqueduct, and after getting away better Montauk Traffic stalked the pace and drew clear to win handily.
After the first race, “the owner was pretty disgusted with the situation and I wanted to correct it quickly,” Rice said.
Rice said the make-up of the field would likely determine whether she runs Montauk Traffic in the Withers at 1 1/8 miles or waits for the Winkfield at seven furlongs. The Withers field is expected to include Remsen Stakes 1-2 finishers, Shotski and Ajaaweed, as well as recent maiden winner Portos and possibly Jerome dead-heat runner-up Bourbon Bay.