Trainer Tom Albertrani will be represented by West Point
Thoroughbreds runners in both $150,000 New York Stallion Series (NYSS) races for
two-year-olds on Saturday at Aqueduct as he has entered Empire Dreams in
the
Great White Way division and Skye Saratoga in the
Fifth Avenue division.
Both races are six furlongs, with the Fifth Avenue
restricted to fillies. Aqueduct also will present the $125,000 NYSS
Thunder
Rumble for three-year-olds and up and the NYSS $125,000
Staten Island for fillies
and mares on the card.
Empire Dreams looks to go one better after finishing second
by three lengths to Sanford winner Wired Bryan in Belmont Park’s
seven-furlong Bertram F. Bongard on October 19, Empire Showcase Day. The dark
bay son of Patriot Act entered the Bongard off a 1 3/4-length victory in
his third start, a six-furlong maiden race on September 29 at Belmont.
“He’s been very consistent in all of his races,” Albertrani said of Empire Dreams. “We drew on the rail, and he’s got a little speed,
so it doesn’t look like a bad position to be in. He’s coming off a nice second
in his last start. This looks like a very competitive spot, and he’s prepared to
run.”
Empire Dreams, the 6-5 morning line favorite for the Great
White Way, will depart from the rail with Irad Ortiz Jr. in the irons.
Skye Saratoga brings less experience
into the Fifth Avenue, having made just two starts in her career. After finishing
fourth on September 29 at Belmont, the Golden Missile filly stalked the pace before kicking clear in
the stretch to graduate by nine lengths on November 1 at Aqueduct.
“She’s coming off a huge win,” Albertrani noted. “She really
moved forward off her first race. This looks like a very good opportunity for
her to come back and hopefully run back to her maiden win.”
Ortiz will also ride Skye Saratoga, the 5-2
morning-line second choice who drew post 3.
Miss Narcissist got all the attention when she won the
October 19 Joseph A. Gimma at Belmont, and the two-year-old filly will try
to remain in the spotlight as part of the eight-filly field drawn for the Fifth Avenue.
Linda Rice has handled Miss Narcissist with patience, and
the trainer’s work paid off when the Freud filly set the pace en route to a 5
1/4-length win in the Gimma. Previously, she had made two starts at Saratoga,
finishing fifth on August 8 after acting fractiously in the paddock and behind
the starting gate, then prevailing by 2 1/2 lengths on August 28. The bay miss has worn
blinkers in both of her wins.
“She’s continued to just settle down,” said Rice, who owns Miss
Narcissist in partnership with Acqua Nova Stable and Winter Park Partners.
“When we first got her, she was pretty high strung. She’s blossomed all fall.
Her antics in Saratoga in the paddock and on the racetrack were typical of her
at the time. The blinkers helped a lot, as did time and maturity.”
Miss Narcissist, the 2-1 morning-line favorite for the
Fifth Avenue, drew post position 6 and will be ridden once
again by Junior Alvarado.
“I see maybe three horses with speed, one of them being
her,” Rice remarked. “She’s on the outside, so I’ll leave it up to Junior Alvarado.”
One of the two horses drawn outside of Miss Narcissist is
her stablemate Champagne Ruby, who was fifth in the Gimma after being bumped at
the start. Champagne Ruby has a pair of wins, including a score in the
Shesastonecoldfox in September at Finger Lakes, in five starts. Rice
trains Champagne Ruby on behalf of her father, Clyde.
“(The Gimma) was a sub-par race for her,” Rice asserted. “She’d
run so well at Finger Lakes and I was quite surprised at how poorly she ran in
the Gimma. I’m hoping she’ll rebound into a good race. She was bumped at the
start in the Gimma; I think she was intimidated. There’s bound to be an
improvement, I hope it’s enough for her to get a good piece of it.”
The
NYSS Thunder Rumble division anchors the four stakes featuring eligible sons and
daughters of New York stallions on Saturday. Favored at 7-2 on the morning-line
of the seven-furlong contest is Chapman, who has been no worse
than third in eight starts.
Trained by Chris Englehart, the sophomore son of Stanislavky is in search of his first stakes win and enters off a 5 3/4-length
optional claiming victory last out at Belmont. The dark bay gelding just missed
by a half-length in his black-type bow in the NYSS Times Square division on May
5 and followed that up with a third in the Claramount.
Also expected to
attract support among the 13 entered in the Thunder Rumble — though that number
will be reduced to 12 come post time as Albetrani said Ultimate Empire would be
scratched from the race — are West Hills Giant, most recently fifth in the Basket Weave
but winner of the Cab Calloway and Spectacular Bid divisions of the NYSS this
season, and Comandante, a 2 1/2-length optional claiming scorer last out who
will be making his stakes bow in this spot.
Ten fillies and mares were entered in the Staten
Island, with Kelli Got Frosty the narrow choice at 3-1 on the morning
line over 7-2 Keep Bustin in the seven-furlong race.
Winner of the 2012 East
View but scoreless in six starts this year, Kelli Got Frosty most recently was
third in an optional claimer behind Keep Bustin and Haldane on October 11 at
Belmont. The Frost Giant three-year-old does own four stakes placings this year
and will break from the rail under Cornelio Velasquez.
Keep Bustin, a three-year-old daughter of Bustin Stones, is 4-4-1 from 10
starts this year including her last-out three-quarter length victory over
Haldane. Her only try against stakes rivals thus far resulted in a
fourth-placing in the NYSS Park Avenue on May 5. She’ll break just to the inside
of Haldane, who ran fourth in last year’s edition of the Staten Island.
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