The Spa Spot: Morning Breeze
Day 17 kicks off the third full week of the 2012 season. There are 10 races - six of them on turf - on the program. The first post is 1 p.m.
- Champion My Miss Aurelia makes her 2012 debut in the eighth race, the $100,000 Mandy's Gold It is a 6 1/2 furlong race on the main track for 3-year-old fillies who have not won a graded stake this year. My Miss Aurelia started her career at Saratoga last summer with a pair of victories. She went on to win the Frizette at Belmont Park and the Breeders Cup Juvenile Fillies at Churchill to lock up the 2-year-old title. A shin injury during the winter slowed her training and she will be ending a nine-month layoff. She has been working steadily for her return and turned in a sharp six-furlong breeze on July 29. My Miss Aurelia will start from post six in the seven-horse field.
- The fifth race is the Cab Calloway Division of the New York Stallion Series. The $100,000 race for 3-year-olds is a mile on the inner turf course. Speedy King Kreesa, winner of two straight, is the 123-pound highweight and the likely favorite.
- There will big local group cheering for Mr. Cowboy in the seventh. Mark and JoAnn Pepper, who own Cabin Creek Farm, a rescue and retirement facility in Greenfield Center, are the majority owners of the 3-year-old gelding and they have 26 partners. Mr. Cowboy, who JoAnn Pepper saved at birth, is trained by James Bond.