On Fire Baby pointed toward the Acorn Stakes on the Memorial Day weekend
Anita Cauley’s On Fire Baby instead of going in her hole after her fifth place finish in the Grade 1, $1million Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on 4 May, 2012, has come out swinging, and she has shown her desire to atone for her defeat in her recent workouts,
as trainer Gary Hartlage obliged by pointing her toward another grade 1 race.
The Kentucky bred three-year-old filly is set to leave her Churchill Downs base to New York to participate in the Grade 1, $300,000 Acorn Stakes at Belmont Park on the big Memorial Day weekend.
The race will be run over a distance of 1 mile over Belmont Park’s fast main dirt track on 28 May, 2012, and already the race has reeled in some interesting names.
The Hard Spun filly, Zo Impressive will look to make up for the second place finish in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Oaks for trainer T. Albertrani.
Another daughter of Hard Spun, Hard Mystery will be aiming to build up on her brilliant victory in the Inside Information Stakes, as Bob Baffert and jockey Martin Garcia bid to win the Acorn Stakes with, Contested, after exiting a victory in the Grade 3
Eight Belles Stakes.
The daughter of Smoke Glacken, On Fire Baby has only won once in three starts season, winning the Grade 3 Honeybee Stakes at Oaklawn Park prior to the Kentucky Oaks defeat.
“She’s doing so good that we just thought we’d give this a try,” Hartlage said Tuesday. “She’s never been beat around one turn, and I thought her race in the Oaks was good. We’re just staying on the path we think she needs to be on.”
Out of Gilded Time mare Ornate, On Fire Baby drilled five furlongs on 19 May, 2012, under the Twin Spires at Churchill Downs in 59.60 seconds ahead of her quest to capture her first Grade 1 victory in seven career starts.
“She worked super,” he said. “She galloped out six furlongs in something like [1:12.40], and I just really liked what we saw. We’ll go on up to New York and see what happens.”
Tags: