Annette Jasko Photo

Aunt Babe rallies for victory in Franklin Square

by Najja Thompson

Cutting back in distance and making her fist start since finishing seventh in the East View on January 14, Louis Ferrari's Aunt Babe rallied late and held off a late charging My Roxy Girl to win the $100,000 Franklin Square 3-year-old New York-bred fillies on Saturday at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Leaving the gate at odds of 6-1 with Rafael Hernandez aboard, Aunt Babe broke alertly and stalked pace-setting Velvet Trinni's swift fractions of 22.77 seconds for the opening quarter-mile, with the half-mile in 46.67.

At the quarter-pole, Pauseforthecause took the lead. Beginning to make her winning move, Aunt Babe moved to the sixth-path. Sent into an overdrive, she passed Pauseforthecause in the deep stretch and held off a late charge from My Roxy Girl to secure the victory by a neck.

She completed the six-furlong distance in 1:11.79.

"We broke good," said Hernandez. "The plan was just try to be close to the speed. A couple of horses had a lot of speed, so [when] we broke good at the gate and tried to keep my position right behind them, like two lengths behind the speed, I turned for home and just made the horse comfortable and put her in the clear and she just ran down the stretch. She did her job, so everything was good.

Returning $14 on a $2 win wager, the daughter of Desert Party earned her second career stakes win boosting her lifetime earnings to $188,000.

"She cut back with ease," said winning trainer Jimmy Ferraro. "Last time, the mile was too much for her. Thoday, it was the type of trip we wanted to see. In her last race, she was a little too sharp and she was up closer than we wanted her to be. We just wanted to try and lay off the speed, and we were very confident coming in. The time was pretty good, too. Things played out well. There was plenty of speed and we just stayed off it.

"Maybe we'll try seven-eighths [of a mile]," added Ferraro. "She might get stronger and stretch out again."

Following My Roxy Girl in second was Pauseforthecause, Beautiful Buzz, Trinni Ninja and Velvet Trinni.