NYRA/Coglianese Photo

Miss Brazil looks to be crowned stakes winner in Ruthless for sophomore fillies

by Brian Bohl

Team D’s Miss Brazil wired the field in her previous start in her main track debut and will return to Aqueduct Racetrack for her first stakes appearance in Sunday’s $100,000 Ruthless for 3-year-old fillies going seven furlongs.

Miss Brazil enters her sophomore bow well-rested following her front-running effort on November 29 at the Big A, where she registered a 2 1/2-length score in the 6 ½-furlong sprint. Trainer Tony Dutrow tried the Palace Malice filly on dirt for the first time following a third-place debut effort on October 25 going six furlongs on the Belmont Park turf, and the move paid off as Miss Brazil earned a 93 Beyer Speed Figure that tops the five-horse Ruthless field.

“That was impressive and she led us to believe going into the race that she was better than average,” Dutrow said. “She’s very kind in the mornings. When we ran her on the turf the first time out, she sat behind horses and made her run. In workouts with other horses, she’s sat behind. I’m not sure what her style is going to be. She broke so good last time and her talent took her right to the front. But I don’t know if she’ll be an aggressive kind of horse, or with racing experience, if she’ll settle down.

“I really have no concerns if there’s a pace in the race or not, because I don’t worry if she’ll sit behind or be the pace,” he added.

Purchased for $170,000 at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Miss Brazil will face stakes company for the first time following a string of five strong breezes over Belmont’s dirt training track.

“She’s really trained fantastic up to the Ruthless here so far,” Dutrow said. “In getting her ready, we had the opportunity to get her on the turf at Saratoga and at Belmont. We felt she’d be better on the dirt. We started her on the turf to get her ready. Instead of me giving her workouts in the morning, I could just give her a turf race and it would do all the work for us to get her ready. When we ran her on the turf, she got experience and got fitness, and when we put her on the dirt, it worked out great.”

Dutrow said her comfort level at the New York tracks made staying local the easy choice.

“The way she liked Aqueduct, it was a big reason to keep her right here instead of going to Florida with her instead of New Orleans or Oaklawn, because she took such a likening to Aqueduct’s surface,” Dutrow said. “She likes the training track at Belmont. The weather in January was pretty good. The surfaces at both Aqueduct and Belmont, they were big factors in keeping her at Belmont this winter.”

Jockey Eric Cancel, aboard for her first two starts, will have the return call from the inside post.

Like Miss Brazil, Little Huntress also broke her maiden at second asking and will face stakes company for the first time.

The gray daughter of Frosted garnered a 75 Beyer for her gate-to-wire 14-length romp on December 27 at Laurel going the Ruthless distance for trainer Brittany Russell. Owned by Madaket Stables, Wonder Stables and Robert LaPenta, Little Huntress worked a bullet half-mile in 48 seconds flat on Friday at her base at Laurel Park, marking the fastest of 25 workouts at that distance.

“She worked really well the other day,” Russell said. “We try and give all of our young horses every option in the morning and her best works are just ‘go.’ We’ve tried rating her, but she just wants to go. The way she won last month was really cool to see."

Little Huntress will ship in for a race for the first time after making her first two starts at Laurel. Meet-leading rider Kendrick Carmouche will ride from post 4.

WinStar Stablemates Racing’s Gulf Coast earned a stakes win in her last start, besting Honorifique by a half length in the one-mile Cash Run on New Year’s Day at Gulfstream Park.

The daughter of Union Rags, trained by Rodolphe Brisset, started her career with big expectations after being purchased for $300,000 at the 2020 Ocala Breeders’ Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training. Gulf Coast won her debut in November and followed with a second-place finish in the Sandpiper in December at Tampa Bay Downs to cap her juvenile campaign.

Making her first start in New York, Gulf Coast will have Manny Franco in the irons from the outermost post.

Rounding out the field is Dealing Justice, a winner going six furlongs on January 10 at the Big A at second asking for trainer Ray Handal [post 2, Dylan Davis]; and It Can, who won her first two starts for trainer Jose Rafael Rohena before running fifth in the Xtra Heat on January 16 at Laurel [post 3, Jorge Vargas, Jr.].

The 44th running of the Ruthless is carded as Race 3 on Aqueduct’s eight-race program, which offers a first post of 1:20 p.m. Eastern.

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