Chelsea Durand Photo

Miss Sky Warrior tops G2 Gazelle

by Lynne Snierson

Miss Sky Warrior looks for her fifth straight win, fourth consecutive stakes score and third Grade 2 victory in a row when she takes on eight other promising 3-year-old fillies in the 122nd running of the $300,000 Gazelle Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack on Saturday.

The Grade 2 Gazelle is also a significant stop on the road to the Grade 1, $1 million Kentucky Oaks with qualifying points (100 for first, 40 for second, 20 for third and 10 for fourth) at stake, and Miss Sky Warrior, currently sitting in third place on the leaderboard with 60 points, can improve her position for one of 14 spots in the Oaks on May 5 and enhance her status as one of the favorites for the "Run for the Lilies". 

Partnered with Paco Lopez, who has been aboard for all five of her previous starts, Arlene London's homebred Miss Sky Warrior will break from post 5 while being asked to shoulder a topweight of 122 pounds. Having captured the Grade 2 Davona Dale at Gulfstream Park in her last effort, Miss Sky Warrior is undefeated at the Big A, where she finished her juvenile campaign with a score in the Grade 2 Demoiselle Nov. 26. Three starts back, she also took the Grade 2 Tempted here November 5.  

Trained by Kelly Breen, the daughter of dual Grade 1 winner First Samurai is the only member of the field who has competed at the Gazelle distance of 1 1/8 miles.

"She seemed to like the track, so that's why we're coming back. Things are going well, so why change things?" said Breen, who sent the filly out for a four furlong breeze in 47.90 seconds at Palm Meadows Training Center in Florida March 29 before shipping her north on Monday. 

Danny Chen's Yorkiepoo Princess is another entrant who puts an impressive winning streak on the line as she tries for her fourth straight stakes win. After ending her juvenile campaign with a win over this track in the six furlong Furlough November 24, she kicked off her sophomore season with a 7 ½ length triumph in the Ruthless at the same distance on Aqueduct's inner dirt track. Last time out, she closed convincingly to take the Busher at 1 1/16 miles on the same surface.

The Florida-bred Kantharos filly, who was acquired for the bargain price of $8,000 as a 2-year-old in training and has gone on to earn $244,811, is currently in a tie for fifth place on the Kentucky Oaks leaderboard with 50 points. Although she is not Oaks-nominated, trainer Edward Barker noted that a first or second-place Gazelle finish will  land her in Louisville and in the Oaks starting gate.

"She's doing very, very good. She's excellent. We're ready to go," said Barker, who breezed the filly three times in nine days due to a weather disruption in the normal training schedule. 

Aqueduct's leading rider Irad Ortiz, Jr., who was aboard for all three of Yorkiepoo Princess' stakes wins, gets the return call and the two will depart from the rail.

"I'd like to see her run the same way she did in the Busher," Barker said of her demonstrated ability to come from off the pace. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it. It looks like there's going to be speed in the race. But the last time she ran long, she improved. So hopefully she'll improve again this time."

Full House, a full sibling to the multiple graded stakes placed Classy Class, was the runner-up behind Yorkiepoo Princess in the Busher last out and now trainer Jimmy Jerkens hopes to turn the tables as they stretch out around two turns. The daughter of Discreetly Mine comes into the Gazelle with twenty Oaks points and tied for 12th place.

"This is the race to run in to see where she stacks up for sure. The distance doesn't seem to bother her. That filly of Barker's passed her [in the Busher] and she continued on. I don't think she was gaining necessarily at the very end, but she wasn't losing any ground to the horse either. Her dam's by Saarland and there's plenty of stamina on that side of the family. Discreetly Mine, I thought, he was kind of a middle distance horse himself, but she's built more like a distance horse so she seems to be taking more from her dam's side in that regard."

Regular rider Rajiv Maragh retains the mount and they will depart from post 2.

Busanda Stakes winner Lockdown, who shipped in from Hall of Famer trainer Bill Mott's winter base at Payson Park in Florida, seeks her third straight win Saturday as she returns from a 2 ½-month layoff. The homebred filly carries the famed green-and-pink colors of Juddmonte Farms and will need a robust effort to represent her connections, who won the 2013 Gazelle with eventual champion Close Hatches, in the Kentucky Oaks as she sits in a tie for 19th place with 10 points. 

The Todd Pletcher-trained and Mike Repole homebred Stay Fond just graduated from the maiden ranks at second asking when she took a one-mile race at Gulfstream with Hall of Fame rider John Velazquez in the irons. The daughter of Stay Thirsty, who won the Grade 1 Cigar Mile here in 2012 and the Grade 1 Travers at Saratoga in 2011 for Repole and Pletcher, is being asked to handle a substantial class hike in her first try in stakes company and at the Gazelle distance.

"She's coming off a good maiden win [in Florida] and we feel like she's well-suited to the mile and an eighth so we're going to give her a try. She's a big, scopey filly with a nice galloping stride to her. She won going a mile off a layoff and we feel like a mile and an eighth should be right in her wheelhouse," said Pletcher, who won the 2014 Gazelle with My Miss Sophia. 

Retaining the services of Velazquez is an added bonus as they will depart from the far outside post in a race that is loaded with early speed. 

Aspen Hilltop last time out lost all chance in the Davona Dale when she stumbled over a fallen foe shortly after the start and was eased, so trainer Gary Contessa drew a line through the race.

"About a sixteenth of a mile into the race, the horse in front of her went down and [Luis Saez] pulled her up. So we didn't get anything out of the race, but she's coming into the Gazelle pretty well. I know it's a stretch to go a mile and an eighth out of the box, but she's training very well for this race. She's also a [daughter of] Bernardini, so she should like the distance," Contessa said.

Reigning Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown, who won last year's Gazelle with Lewis Bay, sends out North End under three-time and reigning Eclipse Award-winning  rider Javier Castellano. She graduated from the maiden ranks in her second start on March 15 in a one mile race over the inner dirt track.

Tiz Rae Anna, who was claimed for $50,000 last fall and was subsequently third behind Yorkiepoo Princess in the Busher and second to her in the Ruthless, and Rimanisempreforte, a supplemental nomination and the recent winner of a starter optional claiming affair, complete the field. 

The Gazelle is carded as the 11th race on a 12-race program at the Big A that also features the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial, presented by NYRA bets, the Grade 1, $400,000 Carter Handicap, the Grade 3, $250,000 Bay Shore Stakes, and the Grade 3, $150,000 Excelsior.