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Dr B makes seasonal debut in G3 Vagrancy

by Ryan Martin

Cash Is King and LC Racing’s Dr B is set to commence her 5-year-old season in Sunday’s Grade 3, $175,000 Vagrancy going 6 1/2 furlongs for older fillies and mares over the Belmont Park main track.

Dr B last saw action when posting a gate-to-wire score in the Grade 3 Go for Wand on December 3 at Aqueduct Racetrack, registering a career best 103 Beyer Speed Figure while also providing four-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. – who rides from post 6 – with a record 77th stakes win in a single North American season. She contested over a sloppy and sealed track in the one-turn mile test, building her advantage through each point of call to stroll home a 4 1/4-length winner.

Never worse than second in her last five starts, Dr B picked up stakes placings in the Roamin Rachel on October 3 at Parx Racing and the Pumpkin Pie on October 29 at Belmont at the Big A en route to her Go for Wand score. Last summer, she completed the exacta behind subsequent Champion Female Sprinter Goodnight Olive in an allowance optional claimer going the Vagrancy distance in August at Saratoga Race Course.

Dr B enters from a winter freshening and has consistently breezed at Parx Racing in Bensalem, Pennsylvania in preparation for Sunday’s engagement, most recently logging an easy half-mile in 51.77 seconds on May 7.

Trainer Butch Reid, Jr. said the daughter of Liam’s Map benefitted from the break.

“She’s doing really well. The time off did her a ton of good. She’s a happy and healthy horse right now so we’re looking forward to getting her back,” Reid, Jr. said. “She ran fantastic in her last race, it was a lifetime best. The winter was coming so we decided right then and there to give her a break and gear her up for a very strong year this year. We have some big races in mind with her, and so far she’s been training fantastic coming up to this first start of the year.”

Dr B brags a consistent 16-5-5-2 record and $348,690 in earnings. Bred in Kentucky by Eico Ventures, Inc., Dr B is out of the graded stakes-placed Proud Citizen mare Boleyn who also produced Reid, Jr.-trained stakes winner Stand Up Comic.

Adelphi Racing Club and Cutair Racing’s New York-bred Funny How will look to get back to winning form after having a five-race winning streak come to a halt with a runner-up effort in the last out Grade 3 Distaff Handicap on April 7 at Aqueduct.

The Ray Handal-trained Overanalyze filly went on a tear over the winter, beginning her hot streak with an open company maiden triumph in September over next-out winners Arrogant Lady and Kitten’s Appeal. She defeated fellow New York-breds in her following two efforts before stretching out to seven furlongs against open allowance company on January 7. She made her stakes debut a winning one, defeating stakes winners Bank Sting and Betsy Blue in the state-bred Broadway on February 12 at the Big A.

Handal expressed encouragement in keeping her at graded stakes level based off her last effort, where she lacked room around the far turn and made a five-wide move to finish 1 1/2 lengths behind the victorious Mommasgottarun.

“It made sense after the last run,” Handal said. “She ran her tail off against open graded stakes company, so I think we keep going this route until she says that she can’t or is ready for another test to jump up. These Grade 3 dirt sprint type of spots are perfect for her. She’s training great coming into this and I think it should suit her just fine.”

Bred by Hibiscus Stables, Funny How is out of the Distorted Humor mare Heavenly Humor – the dam of graded-stakes placed Funny Guy.

Katie Davis, the pilot in her last three starts, retains the mount from post 1.

Godolphin’s Kentucky homebred Caramel Swirl [post 3, Junior Alvarado] will seek to make amends following a fourth-place finish as the heavy favorite in Tampa Bay Downs’ Minaret on February 11.

The 5-year-old Union Rags mare made two starts last year when second in the Grade 1 Ballerina in August at Saratoga following an allowance optional claiming victory here last May for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott.

Caramel Swirl will strive for a second career graded stakes triumph, having captured the Grade 2 Raven Run in October 2021 at Keeneland. She is out of the Smart Strike mare Caramel Snap, who is a half-sister to multiple Grade 1-winner and producer Frosted.

Gatsas Stables, R.H. Hill Stable and Steven Schoenfeld’s Midnight Stroll [post 8, Javier Castellano] also pursues a second graded stakes triumph for trainer John Terranova.

The 4-year-old Not This Time dark bay captured last year’s Grade 3 Delaware Oaks on July 2 going two turns at Delaware Park before completing the trifecta in the Grade 3 Charles Town Oaks the following month and the Grade 2 Raven Run at Keeneland in October. She enters from her 2023 debut, when finishing sixth in the Grade 3 Royal Delta on February 18 at Gulfstream Park.

Stacy Lalman’s Mosienko [post 4, Flavien Prat] is the most experienced contender in the field with 35 lifetime starts while bragging field-best earnings of $513,431, but will be making her graded stakes debut for trainer Dennis Lalman.

The 6-year-old Hat Trick bay mare enters off a win in the one-turn mile “Sis City Purse” on New York Claiming Championship Day, March 25, at Aqueduct. She put together a four-race win streak that kicked off with a pair of state-bred conquests at the Spa before two open-company victories at Belmont at the Big A in the fall. She made her seasonal debut in February when fourth in an open optional-claiming event.

Completing the field are stakes-winner Rossa Veloce [post 2, Manny Franco]; graded stakes-placed Beguine [post 5, Dylan Davis]; and 10-time winner Easy to Bless [post 7, Romero Maragh].

The Vagrancy honors the 1942 Champion 3-Year-Old Filly, who was owned by William Woodward’s Bel Air Stud and trained by Hall of Famer “Sunny Jim” Fitzsimmons. The daughter of Sir Gallahad’s accolades included triumphs in the Coaching Club American Oaks, Alabama, Delaware Oaks, Gazelle, Test and Beldame. As a broodmare, Vagrancy produced Black Tarquin who captured multiple stakes in Europe, including the St. Leger and the St. James’s Palace.

The Vagrancy is carded as Race 8 on Sunday’s nine-race program. First post is 1:00 p.m. Eastern. 

America's Day at the Races will present live coverage and analysis of the Belmont Park spring/summer meet on the networks of FOX Sports. For the broadcast schedule and channel finder, visit https://www.nyra.com/belmont/racing/tv-schedule/.