Winter Memories will make her seasonal debut in the Beaugay Stakes
The 4-year-old James Toner filly, Winter Memories, is training like she is ready go on the track and race, partly of the fact that she hasn’t seen a field ready to race against her in many months. Her last race was in the Grade 1 QE II Challenge Cup at Keeneland’s
turf course on 15 October, 2011, where she finished fourth to winner, Together, going over a distance of 1 1/8 miles.
Phillips Racing Partnership’s Winter Memories looks to go, but James Toner is holding her filly back until May 5, where he is planning a run for her in the Grade 3 Beaugay Stakes at Belmont Park.
Originally, the filly was supposed to make her 2012 debut in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley Stakes on 14 April, 2012, over at Keenland’s turf, cutting back in distance to 1 1/16 miles in a race that will reel in 4-year-old and above fillies and mares.
The Kentucky bred daughter of El Prado, out of mare Memories of Silver by Silver Hawk, Winter Memories had a pretty good start to the 2011 season, where she strung together a hat-trick in her first three starts.
She debuted her 2011 season in the Grade 2 Appalachian Stakes at Keeneland, and downed the 1 mile event on turf with the winning time of 1 minute and 37.37 seconds.
She then raced after a month on 30 May, 2011, and bagged another victory on the trot, the Grade 2 Sand Point Stakes. Over a distance of 1 1/16 miles she downed Celestial Kitten in second and Parting Words in third.
Her hat-trick race was the Grade 2 Lake George Stakes over the same distance at Saratoga racecourse.
“She’s doing super,” Toner said. “We could run her in the Jenny Wiley at Keeneland, but that race is coming up in three weeks and this was just her first five-eighths work, so it would be a little tight. Besides, her race last year at Keeneland wasn’t the
greatest. I think I might just keep her here until mid-April, that way I can get more work into her over the grass at Palm Meadows. Even though it’s been pretty mild up north this winter, you just can’t trust the weather up there.”
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