BY MARYLAND JOCKEY CLUB PRESS OFFICE (Edited)
LAUREL, MD—Florida-bred Unfaithful Rose has come a long way since being dismissed at 12-1 on the tote board for her career debut, a five-furlong maiden special weight race at Belterra Park on August 16.
“When she first came in, she was much smaller than the other 2-year-olds,” said trainer Ethan West, who conditions Unfaithful Rose for Thorough Crowd and Mr. CPA Racing. “It’s hard to set the bar high when you’ve got all these great big 2-year-olds, and she’s barely 15 hands.”
Unfaithful Rose finished second in her debut and in her second start, a six-furlong race at Belterra, but has put things together in her last two races. Those strong recent performances led DeRosa to tab her as his 3-1 morning-line favorite in the $100,000 Xtra Heat, rescheduled to Wednesday’s program at Laurel Park due to frigid temperatures in Maryland over the weekend.
Seven 3-year-old fillies are entered in the six furlong contest.
“In her first couple of starts, it took her a little while,” West said. “She didn’t run badly, but she didn’t run fantastic. Then, on the third start, the lightbulb clicked on for her.”
That lightbulb moment came in the third race, a five-and-a-half-furlong maiden special weight at Mahoning Valley on October 22. Unfaithful Rose won by 12 lengths and improved her Beyer Speed Figure by 42 points to a career-high 76.
West needed to determine whether that race was a fluke. He shipped Unfaithful Rose to Fair Grounds to seek tougher competition, and she responded by finishing third, beaten three-quarters of a length, in a second level, $125,000 optional claimer on December 4.
“She ran exceptionally well down there and was beaten by a nice filly,” West said.
The runner-up from that race, Luv Your Neighbor, returned to finish second in two Kentucky Oaks point races at Fair Grounds, beaten by less than a length each time.
Unfaithful Rose is by Vino Ross out of Starshipunfaithful, by Dialed In and was bred in Florida by Monarch Farms. She has earned $26,230 from her lone win in four starts with two seconds and a third.
Mychel Sanchez rides Unfaithful Rose from post three.
Capuano counters with John Hazard’s Sweet Shenanigans, listed as the 4-1 second choice on the morning line. Sweet Shenanigans hit the board in her last three races, finishing third as the odds-on favorite in a first-level allowance on December 27.
“She really ran well,” Capuano said. “I still think a lot of her. I thought she’d break out by now, but she’s run against some really talented fillies. It’s hard to knock her. I like this filly. She’s got to step up a little bit. She trains really well.”
Won Ton is unbeaten in two starts for Huntertown Farm and trainer Jeff Runco. A four-length debut winner in a sharp sprint at Charles Town on October 25, the Tonalist filly then beat Sweet Shenanigans in that first-level allowance last month.
Haymarket Farm’s Tap Into Grace, a winner on both dirt and turf, makes her sophomore debut for trainer Brittany Russell after finishing second in Penn National’s Blue Mountain Stakes on November 26.
StarLadies Racing and Adelphi Racing’s For the Ladies should show good speed from her inside post for trainer Tom Morley. A romping winner in her second start, a maiden special weight at Aqueduct on November 29, For the Ladies finished third in a first-level allowance there three weeks ago.
Lance Rutledge’s Bresha wired the field in her career debut, a restricted maiden special weight race on the all-weather surface at Turfway Park on December 26. Trained by Wayne Catalano, Bresha is by Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1)-winner Spun to Run and has a strong dirt pedigree. Her third dam, Caressing, won the 2000 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1), and this family has also produced Travers (G1)-winner West Coast.
Victory Music is a strong contender for trainer Michael Maker. A Three Diamonds Farm homebred by Maclean’s Music, Victory Music finished third in Oaklawn’s restricted Astral Spa Stakes on December 14.
The Xtra Heat is the opening race of Maryland’s stakes series for 3-year-old fillies, leading up to the Black-Eyed Susan on May 15 at Laurel Park. The series also includes the $100,000 Wide Country, run at seven furlongs on February 21; the $100,000 Beyond the Wire at one mile on March 21; and the $150,000 Weber City Miss on April 15. The mile-and-one-sixteenth Weber City Miss will serve as a “Win and In” qualifier for the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes.
Return to the February 3 issue of Wire to Wire
