Assuming that the inner dirt track at Aqueduct, which was a sea of slop yesterday, stays wet for today’s $75,000 Garland of Roses Handicap, it’s hard to go past the speedy New York-bred Cologny in the field of seven fillies and mares sprinting six furlongs.
Trained by Scott Lake and ridden by Aaron Gryder at 119 pounds, Cologny has won six of 11 starts, with three seconds, over off-tracks. On top of that, the 4-year-old daughter of Kentucky Derby winner Go for Gin is 10-for-22 at the distance, is 3-for-8 over the IDT, with three seconds and a third, and she’s in career-best form, coming off a gate-to-wire, 71/2-length blowout in the Nov. 13 Montclair Stakes at the Meadowlands.
Cologny will likely face early pressure from another fast filly, Forest Music to her inside, but that doesn’t bother Lake.
“I think we’ll be on the lead,” he said. “I think she’s a little bit faster than Forest Music. If she doesn’t make the lead, she’s still versatile enough to be effective. She won from just off the pace at Finger Lakes.”
If a speed duel with Forest Music does sap Cologny’s strength, then Ebony Breeze, the 121-pound highweight breaking from post 1, could be along late to pick up the pieces. Trained by Bill Mott for George Steinbrenner’s Kinsman Sable, Ebony Breeze is a multiple stakes winner whose 656G bankroll is by far the highest in the race.
Today’s co-feature is the $60,000 Exogenous Stakes, named after Scotty Schulhofer’s Grade 1-winning gray filly who tragically flipped over just before the post parade for the 2001 Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Belmont Park, fractured her skull and died a few days later.
Shug McGaughey’s 3-year-old filly Strategy, a royally bred daughter of A.P. Indy out of Educated Risk, is the probable favorite under Fernando Jara, but she’ll be running for second money if Our Rite of Spring runs back to her last race, a 123/4-length blowout versus allowance company in the Big A slop Nov. 12.
If you’re hanging around the Big A for simulcasting after the last race, be sure to check out today’s fourth at Hollywood Park. The 61/2-furlong dash for maiden 2-year-olds features the debut of Fusaichi Samurai (by Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus), a colt that cost a record $4.5 million at auction last February, the most ever paid for a 2-year-old in training.
“He’s a different type of horse than Fusaichi Pegasus,” said Neil Drysdale, trainer of both horses. “This horse is very straight-forward. He is a tall horse, a little leaner than Fusaichi Pegasus.”