Hit it Rich will get class relief in the Long Island Handicap
As a 4-year-old, Hit it Rich was introduced graded stakes event for the first time last year in November, and she won her first try in the Grade 3 Long Island Handicap at Aqueduct race track, and now the 5-year-old mare will attempt to cap off her 5-year-old campaign with the victory in the same race on 10 November, 2012.
The $150,000 event has reeled in 10, 3-year-old and above fillies and mares to run over a distance of 1 ½ miles.
Stuart S. Janney III’s Hit it Rich has been busy this season, with after another graded stakes events, and she hasn’t done all that bad, and has gone on to win twice, finish second twice and lone third place finish in six starts this season.
Recently, the Shug McGaughey trained mare is exiting a seventh place in the Grade 1 Flower Bowl Stakes over 1 ¼ miles at Belmont Park’s turf course on 29 September.
Maybe, it was the step up in class that proved too much to handle for the mare, as she finished off the board and fell out of her usual first three positions for the first time this season, as Nahrain took the 1 ¼ mile event in 2 minutes and 5.56 seconds.
Prior to the Flower Bowl loss, Hit it Rich was coming off victory in the Grade 3 Glens Falls Handicap at Saratoga over 1 3/8 miles on 3 September, 2012.
This time in the Long Island Handicap, Hit it Rich will find the class for fillies and mares to her liking, believes Buzz Tenney, assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey.
"She's going to be up in the (Long Island) maybe on the lead, going that far," Tenney said. "She'll have control of the race, I think. We'll see if she can get the trip. I think she can; she did it last year. She worked a half on Monday (in 50.03 seconds), which is her kind of work, and galloped out good. She's honest, she tries, and we'll see what happens."
The Smart Strike mare posted her second victory of the season early in the season, when she downed the Grade 3 Orchid Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
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