Hendrie Stakes (Grade 3)- $150.000 Purse
WO- For Fillies and Mares Three Years Old and Upward
Six and a Half Furlongs on the Dirt
October 23, 2021
It might seem late for the Hendrie Stakes, as this race which is normally run in June will be going to post in 2021 here in late October! It’s $150.000 purse has been restored this year after running for $25.000 less for the four previous years. As we often see in a race like this, there is some good variation in the paths that have been taken by the horses leading into the race. Last year, Mb Stables won the race with First Impression who would end up running third the BC Fillies and Mares Sprint. We’ve also seen T S Devil win this race in back to back years, in 2015 and 2016 for trainer Triple K. Here is our field this year!
#1- Sweet Distiction (Mwn Racing, ridden by D Fukumoto)- Oh, autocorrect is not going to like this horse, but the six year old mare has made plenty of program writers double check the spelling of her name as she makes the 27th start of her career here. It will be the first time she has run in a graded stake, so kudos to Mwn Racing for taking this one that was passed around in claimers multiple times and getting her here. She’s hit the board in 16 races, but only won three times. It should be mentioned that she’s often been in small fields but that said, I like the shot being made here.
#2- Battle Abbey (The Sidley Stud, ridden by A Cedillo)- This Ginger Haggis filly returns to the graded ranks for just her second such start, but she does have a handful of ungraded stakes on her resume. She’s won one of them, though a win in the $35.000 AZ Breeders- Fillies is not going to intimidate her rivals. A result that could do that a little better was a sharp fourth place effort in the $275.000 Dogwood in her last start, where she only missed by a length.
#3- Dan Patch (Waldo, ridden by J Lermyte)- We last saw here running ten furlongs at SAR in the Grade 1 Alabama. Her performance in that race was quite poor, but other tracks have treated her much better. She has also done most of her racing running around the mile mark, but has not run in a sprint in close to a year and a half. Did win the Grade 3 Selene in June, with the best part of that being that it came on this race track.
#4- Gold Futures (TwinTowersRacing, ridden by S Ryan)- After a poor finish in the Grade 2 Fleur De Lis Handicap, TwinTowersRacing was not satisfied with just keep bringing her out there and hoping for better. Her distance was cut back and would be “dropped” into an open allowance at SAR. Those are mini-stakes, and Gold Futures ran well to bounce back into graded company while sprinting, something that she had done, but just not at this level. Ran third in the Grade 2 Bloom Handicap at BEL last month and I think she is going to build on that with a strong performance here as well. It doesn’t seem like I pick TwinTowers’ horses to win all that much, but here, I am!
#5- Amaris (First Street Stables, ridden by A A Gallardo)- You have to go all the way back to June 2020 to find the last time that Amaris ran on the main track, and she seemed to do well that day, placing third in the Grade 3 Trillium. After that, though, it was off to the grass and she did win a couple of ungraded stakes on it but also seemed a little more inconsistent on it. I like that she is heading back to the dirt and am interested in seeing how this works out for her.
#6- Secrether (Ekli Stable, ridden by D Moran)- This four year old filly knows how to win races, doing so in ten of her 18 career starts. Impressively, she began 2021 by winning her first five races of the year and during that stretch, she climbed the ladder from overnights, to ungraded stakes, then to winning the Grade 3 Vagrancy Handicap. When she didn’t win her next start, the trainer dropped her into open allowance again and she did well again. Glad to see her back at this level.
#7- Icy Bay (Mwn Racing, ridden by E J Wilson)- Her career started normally, winning three of her first six races and was also seen in the Grade 1 Frizette. Then, she was claimed for $35.000 from Gdp Inc and we did not see her again for almost two years, never having a three year old campaign. Resurfaced five weeks ago and was second in a PA-bred race, then third at KEE two weeks ago. Oh well, from too well rested to not well rested.
#8- Silver Jazzmin (The Sidley Stud, ridden by R Bejarano)- Our final entry in the field is this 23-race veteran that has made a lot of starts in Grade 3 races over her career. Only one of them resulted in a win and that came in May when she was victorious in the Desert Stormer at SA in May. Also had a decent second in the Grade 3 Seaway right here two months ago. If she runs like she did in either of those two races, then she will be a threat in here.
Prediction: 4-2-6-8
— NS
Categories: Grade III, STAKES ARTICLES
