Yara tops Calder's Summit Preview Day

by Brisnet.com

With nine-furlong misses in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks and Grade 2 Gulfstream

Park Oaks behind her, Yara will cut back to a six-furlong sprint for Saturday's

$75,000

Leave Me Alone Stakes, her first start since a failed attempt at attaining

Oaks glory in Kentucky.

"I thought she was going to run better, but things didn't work out; they

didn't go our way," trainer Jose Garoffalo said of the Kentucky Oaks, where Yara

finished 13th. "Most importantly she came out of the race in good shape, and

she's ready for the second part of the year."

Following her start in the Oaks, Yara remained at Trackside Louisville,

Churchill Downs' training center, where she recorded a five-furlong work, her

only morning move since the race, in 1:01 3/5 on Saturday. The filly shipped to

Garoffalo's barn at Calder the next day.

"She stayed in Kentucky (with assistant Mario Diaz) because we wanted to keep

our options open, in case there was another race up north that we wanted to run

in," Garoffalo explained. "But after some discussion we decided it was probably

best to settle her down and start over with her, so we brought her back down

here."

Once the decision was made to return to south Florida, the Leave Me Alone was

circled as the next target, and the Put It Back filly, who wasn't originally

nominated to the race, was supplemented when entries were taken last Monday.

"My feeling is the competition will be a little easier down here than what

she has been facing," Garoffalo said. "And she loves it down here. You could

tell the minute she got back to the barn on Sunday, she was happy to be here."

Garoffalo has mapped a short-term plan for Yara, which includes a start in

next month's Summit of Speed, assuming all goes well in Saturday's race. Beyond

that, the trainer wouldn't rule out another trip north where Yara could again

encounter some of the best fillies of her generation.

"Right now the plan is for her to run, and run well, on Saturday, and then

we'll look at the Summit race (Grade 3 Azalea on July 7) for her next start,"

Garoffalo said. "After that, maybe it will be time to go north again."

The Leave Me Alone Stakes is one of five stakes scheduled for Calder's Summit

Preview Day. The other three Summit Preview events are the $75,000

Unbridled Stakes, $75,000

Ponche

Handicap and $75,000

U Can

Do It Handicap, while the $55,000

Emergency Nurse Stakes will also take place on the day.

The Unbridled Stakes was to feature the lightly-raced Steel Man, but trainer

Freddie Hyatt arrived at the Calder stable office Friday morning with a horse

trailer in tow that didn't hold his Congrats colt.

"Just yesterday, he stepped on a nail," the trainer explained. "This is a

tough game, isn't it?"

With the defection of Steel Man, the Unbridled Stakes will start just six,

with Bahamian Squall, a nine-length allowance winner going 6 1/2 furlongs at

Calder on May 6, and Fort Loudon, who swept the Florida Stallion Stakes as a

juvenile and posted a two-length score in the In Summation Stakes last month,

the likely favorites.

The six-furlong Ponche features Grade 3 winner Apriority, who ran sixth in

the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Stakes following a half-length second in the Grade 3

Count Fleet Handicap in his past two, while the U Can Do It will see Grade

1-placed Tamarind Hall going six furlongs in an attempt to earn her first win

since taking the Grade 3 Bed o' Roses Handicap last July.

The Summit Preview Day stakes will get underway in the Emergency Nurse, a one

mile and 70-yard race that includes Beloveda and Canadian Mistress, who were the

respective two-three in the Grade 3 Rampart Stakes in late March.

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