The Top Flight Handicap ($100.000 Purse)
AQU- For Fillies and Mares Four Years Old and Upward
One Mile and One Eighth on the Dirt
April 10, 2021
The Big A will not be the focal point of the racing world on Saturday, but there is still racing going on at this great track. Part of the card is the 15th running of the Top Flight Handicap, sending older females nine furlongs on the main track. We will have a small field for the race, but that has not been uncommon for its history. It’s been a good race for Mb Stables, as he won it for three straight years from 2015 to 2018 (it was not run in 2017), but last year it was Nakamura Stables tasting victory with Scarlet And Gray. That mare is still active, and has been experiencing hit and miss success since then. Let’s take a look at our fabulous five this year!
#1- Dorians Drift (YME Stable, ridden by J L Ortiz)- After winning three of her last four races, this filly has earned the opportunity to make her stake debut. Has not raced more than a mile often, but when she has, she has done well, so we should not be worried about that. She’ll have no room to back down from the form she has been on lately, though.
#2- Speedy Ginger (The Sidley Stud, ridden by J A Vargas Jr)- For this one, it is a return to the Top Flight Handicap, and she will be looking to do one position better than her second place run of last year. She’s continued to run well, winning a Grade 3 in November, as well as her last start two weeks ago in an open allowance. She is high weight here, carrying four more pounds than three of her opponents (and two more than the other).
#3- Proud Daughter (Night Rider Stables, ridden by E Cancel)- This Proud Chai filly spent most of her career in claimers, but Night Rider’s claim of her, for $13.500, has led to bigger and better. Proud Daughter comes off a win in her last start, which was a statebred allowance at PEN. The trainer also added bute and lasix since picking her up, and that might be helping her too. Can this career progression continue? We shall see.
#4- Distorted Jangles (Nakamura Stables, ridden by K Carmouche)- The last time we saw this filly on the track, she won a $100.000 stake at the end of November. After the win, she sat around for two months, and then was sold for $110.250 in late January. She then sat around for another two months. She was running well before the stake win, too, but the question with her is how rusty might she be?
#5- Commanding Jane (Serenity Stables, ridden by T McCarthy)- Finally, this filly by Command Attention will be making her 12th start, and hoping for her fourth win. All the wins are in overnights, but she does have one stake attempt in her past. That was the Grade 3 Bayakoa last December, where she was fourth. I really like how she ran in her last start, an optional claiming win.
Prediction: 5-2-1-3
— NS
Categories: STAKES ARTICLES, Ungraded
