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Security Code cuts back in Key Cents; Leave No Trace looks to sophomore campaign

by NYRA Press Office

• Security Code cuts back in Key Cents; Leave No Trace looks to sophomore campaign
• Small Pebbles makes debut for Carlos Martin in $100K Key Cents
• Aqueduct fall meet Week 4 stakes probables 

WellSpring Stables owns a strong hand of horses in the care of conditioner Phil Serpe led by Grade 1 Spinaway winner Leave No Trace and Queen’s Plate winner Safe Conduct. Security Code, a 2-year-old daughter of Frosted, will attempt to become the latest stakes winner for her connections in Sunday’s $135,000 Key Cents, a six-furlong sprint for New York-bred juvenile fillies, at Aqueduct Racetrack. 

Security Code will cut back to six furlongs from a distant fifth-place effort in the one-mile state-bred Maid of the Mist on October 30 at Belmont at the Big A. There, she tracked in fifth throughout under Dylan Davis and struggled to make up ground. Her other stakes outing was a similar fourth-place finish in the seven-furlong Joseph A. Gimma facing New York-breds on September 23 over the same course. 

The Key Cents will mark the first time Security Code has raced at six furlongs since a closing maiden score at second asking on September 2 at Saratoga Race Course. She rallied from fourth-of-eight to improve her position at each point of call and score the 1 3/4-length triumph under Tyler Gaffalione. 

Serpe said returning to six furlongs and adding blinkers should benefit Security Code. 

“I think the blinkers will help her focus a bit better,” Serpe said. “She took a lot of kickback in her last race and it seemed to bother her. This filly is still trying to find her way a little bit, but she’s a big, strong filly and I think you’ll see her improve.” 

Bred by Rockridge Stud, Ascendant Farms and Godolphin, Security Code is out of the graded stakes-placed Montbrook mare Stopspendingmaria, making her a half-sister to stakes-winner No Mo’ Spending and stakes-placed Blewitt. 

Two days after Serpe sent out Security Code to break her maiden at the Spa, he celebrated a Grade 1 triumph with WellSpring Stables’ Leave No Trace in the $300,000 Spinaway. The daughter of Outwork upset the field of 10 at odds of 14-1 and came home 1 1/2 lengths the better of subsequent Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies victress Wonder Wheel. 

Leave No Trace went on to finish a game third next out in the Grade 1 Frizette on October 2 at Belmont the Big A before shipping to Kentucky to take on the best OF her division in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. There, she attended the pace set by Grand Love and took a half-length lead at the stretch call, but was collared in the stretch by familiar foe Wonder Wheel and defeated three lengths when second. 

“She came back in very good shape and she’s just walking the shed row,” said Serpe. “We’re probably going to give her five or six weeks off and then get her ready for her 3-year-old campaign. She wouldn’t run again until sometime in February or so.” 

Multiple graded stakes-placed Safe Conduct, who was last seen finishing a gutsy third in the Grade 3 Knickerbocker won by King Cause on October 9 at Belmont at the Big A, will be freshened and brought back in the spring for a 5-year-old campaign. 

“He’s doing well and getting a little breather right now,” Serpe said. “He won’t run back again until next year.” 

The Ontario-bred son of Bodemeister tracked in second to the stretch call of the nine-furlong Knickerbocker and was headed by runner-up Pixelate at the top of the lane. Those two battled down the stretch before the latter got his nose down in time for place honors with Safe Conduct holding off the late bid of Field Pass by a neck for show. 

Safe Conduct’s best win came in last year’s $1 million Queen’s Plate at Woodbine Racetrack where he held off Riptide Rock by a head to claim victory in Canada’s most prestigious race for sophomores. He went on to close out his campaign with two more stakes placings when runner-up in Aqueduct’s Gio Ponti and third in the Tropical Park Derby at Gulfstream Park. This year, he earned two graded placings with a second-place finish in the Grade 3 Monmouth at its namesake track and in the Knickerbocker. 

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Small Pebbles makes debut for Carlos Martin in $100K Key Cents

William D. Hart Sr.’s New York homebred Small Pebbles will make her first venture outside of Finger Lakes when making her debut for trainer Carlos Martin in Sunday’s tenth edition of the $100,000 Key Cents for New York-bred juvenile fillies going six furlongs at Aqueduct Racetrack. 

The Bustin Stones bay made the 334-mile journey from Farmington, New York to Martin’s Belmont Park stable two weeks ago and registered her first breeze for him on November 15, going a bullet three furlongs over the training track in 35.80 seconds. 

Small Pebbles won her first two starts, graduating on debut in August ahead of a victory in the Shesastonecoldfox on October 24 at the Key Cents distance for her former conditioner Linda Dixon. 

“I got her a couple of weeks ago and she’s a nice filly. She had a couple of nice wins over at Finger Lakes,” Martin said. “The competition will get a little deeper in here, but she breezed well. I was going to wait for the Stallion Stakes [$500,000 NYSSS Fifth Avenue on December 17], but when I saw how light the field was in this race, I figured it would be worth a shot.”

Small Pebbles will be the first Hart homebred to be trained by Martin, who praised the filly’s previous trainer. 

“Linda Dixon did a great job with the filly,” Martin said. “These horses by Bustin Stones can run but they can be a little quirky, so she did well with her. Hopefully, she runs as well for us as she did for them.

“She’s been pretty straightforward,” Martin continued. “She can get a little high-strung but so far, it seems like she’s settled in well and she’s definitely a racehorse.”

Small Pebbles is out of the Fusaichi Pegasus mare Bright Line, whose dam is Grade 1-winning millionaire and Grade 1 producer Clear Mandate. 

Small Pebbles will leave from the outside post in the six-horse field under jockey Kendrick Carmouche. 

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Aqueduct fall meet Week 4 stakes probables

Friday, November 25

G3 Long Island

Probable: Capital Structure (Chad Brown), Kalifornia Queen (C. Brown), Rocky Sky (C. Brown), Temple City Terror (Brendan Walsh), Tic Tic Tic Boom (Alan Bedard)

G3 Comely

Probable: Falconet (Todd Pletcher), Kathleen O. (Shug McGaughey), Morning Matcha (Butch Reid, Jr.), Nostalgic (Bill Mott), Tizzy in the Sky (Jose Camejo)

$150K Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship

Probable: Dancing Buck (Michelle Nevin), Gear Jockey (Rusty Arnold), Matta (Michael Trombetta), Nothing Better (Jorge Duarte, Jr.), Run Curtis Run (Mike Maker), Scuttlebuzz (Rudy Rodriguez), Thin White Duke (David Donk), Yes and Yes (Donk)

Possible: Cazadero (Walsh)

$100K Notebook (NYB)

Probable: Acoustic Ave (Christophe Clement), Don’t Lose Cruz (Rick Schosberg), Flashy Alex (Randi Persaud)

Saturday, November 26

(Double draw for November 26 and 27 to be held Wednesday, November 23)

G2 Red Smith

Probable: Astronaut (Tom Albertrani), Dynadrive (Tom Morley), Highest Honors (C. Brown), Reigning Spirit (Al Stall, Jr.), Sanctuary City (James Ferraro), Shawdyshawdyshawdy (Jorge Abreu), Soldier Rising (Clement), Temple (Maker)

G3 Fall Highweight

Probable: Bezos (Chandradat Goberdhan), Factor It In (Carlos Mancilla), Greeley and Ben (Jeffrey Englehart), Happy Farm (Mike Miceli), Runninsonofagun (John Toscano, Jr.)

Possible: Synthesis (David Jacobson)

$120K Central Park

Probable: Bat Flip (Todd Pletcher), Calycanthus (Pletcher), Chiringo (George Weaver), Dandy Handyman (Keri Brion), Dr. Settle’s Dream (Mott), General Jim (McGaughey), Liar’s Poker (Clement), Ramblin’ Wreck (Danny Gargan)

Sunday, November 27

$150K Discovery

Probable: Affable Monarch (Duarte Jr.), Be Better (Pletcher), Curlin’s Wisdom (Linda Rice), Eloquist (Reid, Jr.), Saint Tapit (Pletcher), Winit (John Kimmel)

Possible: Baldizar (H. James Bond), Barese (Maker), Open Road (Brad Cox)

$150K Autumn Days

Probable: Athwaaq (Lolita Shivmangal), Change of Control (Michelle Lovell), Gogo Shoes (Maker), Honey Pants (Clement), Lady Edith (Clement), Star Devine (Abreu), Stolen Holiday (McGaughey), Too Sexy (Clement)

$120K Tepin

Probable: Agua Dulce (Pletcher), Alluring Angel (Abreu), Gambling Girl (Pletcher), Liguria (C. Brown), Thirty Thou Kelvin (Abreu), Tribal Queen (Tony Dutrow)

Possible: Smokie Eyes (Clement)