Purely Hot breezes in advance of Groupie Doll rematch in
TCA
Tuozzo Racing’s Purely Hot, runner-up to champion Groupie
Doll in the Presque Isle Downs Masters on September 9, tuned up for an
expected rematch in Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Thoroughbred Club of America by
working a half-mile in :48 1/5 over Keeneland’s Polytrack on Sunday morning.
With regular rider Harry Vega aboard, Purely Hot posted
fractions of :12 1/5, :24 2/5 and :36 2/5 before galloping out five furlongs in 1:01 to
the satisfaction of 24-year-old trainer Nick Caruso.
“That was a second faster than she worked before the
Presque Isle race,” Caruso said of the five-year-old mare who has finished first in
six of seven starts on the all-weather Tapeta surface at Presque Isle. “That was
a good work for her.”
Caruso claimed Purely Hot for $4,000 in January at Penn
National.
“She had won easily for $25,000 last year at Presque Isle
and I knew I was going to be going there so I thought it was worth a shot,”
Caruso said.
However, Caruso lost her to the previous owners for $8,000
in February but then claimed her back for $10,000 in March and that was the last
time Purely Hot has run for a tag.
At Presque Isle, with Vega in the saddle, Purely Hot
stream rolled the local competition and gave Groupie Doll all she could handle
before yielding late in the 6 1/2-furlong Masters.
“I know a lot of people are going to look at that race and
say Groupie Doll just beat a $4,000 claimer,” Caruso said. “She is not a $4,000
claimer and that race was no fluke. I think she is a better all-weather track
and grass horse. She has run four times on the grass and won two with a second.”
Caruso believes he has a couple of things in his favor
going into the TCA, which is run at six furlongs.
“It is a cut back in distance and we get a break in the
weights this time,” Caruso said of Purely Hot, who gave Groupie Doll three pounds in
the Masters but will be getting weight Saturday. “I am a big Groupie Doll fan,
but she is going to have to run to beat her (Purely Hot).”
Vega, who plans to ride at Keeneland for the entire meet that begins
Friday and runs through October 26, will be seeking his second Keeneland stakes
victory. He won the 2002 Phoenix aboard Xtra Heat.
In addition to Groupie Doll, Purely Hot is also expected to face Presque Isle
Downs Masters third Judy the Beauty and Tanglewood Tale in the TCA.
Trainer Wesley Ward has become of master in recent years of
unveiling promising two-year-olds at the Keeneland spring meet and Judy the Beauty was one of those, winning at first asking
in April 2011 for Ward, who is also the owner. Undefeated in two Keeneland
starts, the four-year-old daughter of Ghostzapper has compiled a career mark of
11-4-6-1 with earnings of $465,781.
However, missing from that resume is a graded victory, an omission Ward hopes to rectify in
the Thoroughbred Club of
America.
“I thought she was going to get it at Saratoga,” Ward said
of Judy the Beauty, who flipped at the starting gate and had to be scratched
from the Ballerina on August 23.
Judy the Beauty resurfaced 2 1/2 weeks later with a
third-place finish behind Groupie Doll and Purely Hot in the Presque
Isle Downs Masters.
“I was a little disappointed in that race, but we had not
planned to go there initially,” Ward admitted. “But we brought her back here
which has basically been her home for two years and she has been training great.
She worked :58 and 4 (on Thursday, the best of 24) and I think when you have a
game in your own backyard, you have an advantage.”
In addition to the TCA, Ward plans to be active in three
other Keeneland stakes over the weekend plus the Grade 3, $150,000 Jessamine on October 9. In Sunday’s
Grade 1, $500,000 Spinster, Ward plans to send
out Doubledogdare runner-up and recent Kentucky
Downs Ladies Turf eighth-place finisher Sisterhood.
“I think she is one of those Kitten’s Joys that is better
on the Polytrack than on the grass,” Ward said of the chestnut miss who has
compiled a 4-2-2-0 mark on Keeneland’s synthetic main track. “She has been doing
very well.”
Ward will be represented in Friday’s Grade 1, $400,000 Alcibiades by Richies Party Girl and in Sunday’s
Grade 3, $150,000 Bourbon by Here’s Johnny. Ward took both juveniles to Europe in August to race at
Deauville.
“You like to take horses you think will have a chance and
they both ran very credible,” Ward said of the duo who finished fourth in their
respective races.
A winner of a two-turn grass race in her most recent start
at Churchill Downs, Richies Party Girl worked five furlongs in 1:00 at Keeneland Saturday in her final major move for her Polytrack race debut.
Here’s Johnny has made all three of his starts on turf, with the most recent
being a runner-up finish in the Kentucky Downs Juvenile.
For the Jessamine at 1 1/16 miles on the
turf, Ward has La Mejor Fiesta, who worked five furlongs at Keeneland in
1:00 Sunday morning.
“She broke her maiden on the grass at Churchill Downs in
her first start and I was pointing her to a stakes at Saratoga but she got sick
the day of the race,” Ward said. “I was disappointed in her last race (a
seventh-place finish in the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies), but she has
trained well since.”
Mario Martinez’s Tanglewood Tale brings a three-race win
streak to Keeneland for Saturday’s TCA, a dive
into deeper waters than the filly has faced before.
“I do not know her ceiling yet,” said 28-year-old trainer
Mike Wilson, who claimed the filly for $20,000 at Saratoga in September 2012. “I
know she won her first start (in 2011) by seven lengths against maiden special
weights at Saratoga and horses like typically can run.”
A year after the maiden win, Wilson claimed the filly as he
started building his stable after going out on his own.
“There were no physical issues with her,” Wilson said. “We put about 150
pounds on her, gave her some TLC and worked with her to relax. She had run well
and she never quits, but she just needed to get her confidence back. We dropped
her in for $35,000 at Saratoga and that was all she needed.”
A product of Darley’s Flying Start program, the University
of California-Davis graduate cut his teeth on the track working for Hall of
Famers Richard Mandella and Bob Baffert. Tanglewood Tale will be his first
starter at Keeneland.
“It will be a good test to see what level she is.
Unfortunately Groupie Doll is in there with her,” Wilson said.
The TCA also offers the first chance for the filly to run
on Polytrack.
“If the race were at Presque Isle or Del Mar, I don’t think
we would have tried it because those seem like deeper all-weather tracks,”
Wilson said. “I think she likes it tighter like it is here.”
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