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Field of eight ready to run in G2 Demoiselle

by Anthony Affrunti

 Saturday's Grade 1 Cigar Mile undercard will feature the Grade 2, $250,000 Demoiselle with eight 2-year-old fillies who all display a promising future ahead of their first few starts.

Carded as Race 8 on the 10-race program, the Demoiselle, with a scheduled post time of 3:45 p.m., will be shown as part of the Aqueduct Live program, airing nationally from 3-4:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 2, with regional coverage in the tri-state area on MSG+. Televised coverage will also include the Grade 2, $250,000 Remsen in Race 9 with an approximate post time of 3:45 p.m. and concludes with the Grade 1, $750,000 Cigar Mile, presented by NYRA Bets, in Race 10 at 4:16 p.m.

Fox Hill Farm's filly Daisy is one of the Demoiselle's strong contenders as she makes her third career start and returning to Aqueduct after besting five others in the Grade 3 Tempted at a mile on November 3. The daughter by Blame is the field's lone filly who has run over the track, coming to the Big A after her debut at Parx on October 9 in which she broke her maiden by eight lengths at first asking for trainer John Servis.

Daisy is one of two undefeated fillies Servis will send to the gate on Saturday along with Maurer Power, who will carry the colors of Cash Is King. The daughter Violence filly was a stalking winner in her debut at Delaware Park and returned to win a 6 ½ furlong allowance at Parx.

"Everything is going real well, but I have a feeling one of them won't be undefeated after Saturday," Servis joked. "They're both nice fillies. I hate racing them against each other, but there really wasn't much of a choice. It's brutal.

"Daisy has just matured, she's gotten better," he added. "She's just training great. Maurer Power, we've always been kind of high on her. She didn't show a whole lot in the morning, but she went out and broke her maiden, then we gave her a freshening. She really just figured it all out. They're both going farther in distance now, but I think they can handle it without a problem."

A win by Daisy would give both Fox Hill Farms and Servis their second Demoiselle after they teamed together to capture the 1999 edition with multiple graded stakes winner Jostle, an earner of $1,389,932.

Daisy drew the rail and will be piloted by Kendrick Carmouche. Maurer Power will break from post 6 and be ridden by Irad Ortiz, Jr.

Gary Barber's Wonder Gadot will lead the field in class experience while she returns from her sixth-place finish in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies on November 4 at Del Mar. The Medaglia d'Oro filly broke her maiden at Woodbine, then followed with a near-miss effort in which she earned third in the Grade 1 Natalma. Both races were turf starts that were followed with a front-running six-length victory in the Grade 3 Mazarine over Woodbine's synthetic surface. A rough trip compromised her chances in the Breeders' Cup, but after a little time in Florida, trainer Mark Casse said Wonder Gadot seems poised for better in the Demoiselle.

"She's doing great," Casse said. "We sent her to Ocala after the Breeders' Cup, and got her ready for the race then we shipped her up there on Sunday to Aqueduct."

"She should've been third in the Breeders' Cup. Chad's [Brown] filly [Separationofpowers] came out and stopped us cold, and probably cost us third place, but she ran well. She did good. We think the mile and an eighth will be good for her. It's just her second start on dirt, but the field is coming along well, it's a good race, so we'll see."

Wonder Gadot will run from post 3, and will do so in tandem with Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez.

Chester and Mary Broman's Held Accountable enters the Demoiselle as a strong foe to compete with after displaying a strong willingness to best her competition in her three career starts. The Exchange Rate filly won her first afternoon try by taking a field of nine others to the wire in a 5 ½-furlong dash on the turf at Saratoga.

She returned a little over a month later to win the seven-furlong, $150,000 Joseph A. Gimma on September 20 at Belmont after stumbling at the start, but closing well enough amid soft fractions to win by 2 ¼ lengths. A month and a day later, she returned to face seven others in the Maid of the Mist, but her late run fell short by 1 ½ lengths to winner Berning Rose. Now, the earner of $183,800 returns to make her debut at Aqueduct for trainer Phil Serpe.

Held Accountable will break from post 4 and will get the services of her regular rider Luis Saez.

Others entered in the Demoiselle are Francis Abbot Jr's Vindictive Ways for trainer Francis Abbott III and jockey Forest Boyce from post 2; Robert G. Hahn's Indy Union for trainer Jeremiah Englehart and jockey Jose Ortiz from post 5; Lael Stables Layla Noor for trainer Arnaud Delacour and jockey Manuel Franco from post 6; and Maxis Stables Stakes On a Plane for trainer Michael Catalano Jr. and jockey Joshua Navarro from the outside post.