The last time Heavenly Score went turf to dirt, she won a seven-furlong allowance race by seven lengths and earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 93.
On Wednesday, in a wide-open $100,000 Shine Again Stakes at Saratoga, Heavenly Score again will be going turf to dirt. If she runs a 93 Beyer, she is likely to win the stakes for fillies and mares.
Heavenly Score is coming off a third in the Grade 3 Intercontinental Stakes at seven furlongs on the turf at Belmont.
“We knew she’d run really well that day,” trainer John Terranova said of her race in the Intercontinental. “She’d been training lights out going into it. Two more jumps and she was in front.”
Terranova was also considering Saturday’s one-mile De La Rose on turf for Heavenly Score, but he’d prefer to keep her in a one-turn race. Moreover, Terranova loved Heavenly Score’s recent bullet workout over Saratoga’s main track.
“She really breezed fantastic the other day,” Terranova said.
Your Love, trained by Chad Brown, makes her second start off an extended layoff. In her first start, she lacked running room in the lane and was beaten in an allowance race.
“She was hemmed in there, nowhere to go,” Brown said. “She did get the race she needed.”
Come Dancing came off a six-month layoff to win a second-level allowance here last Wednesday, and is entered in the Shine Again.
Trainer Carlos Martin has had success at Saratoga wheeling horses back on short rest. In 2016, Greyjoy won two races in six days for him. In 2010, Writingonthewall won twice in a week.
Come Dancing went back to the track Sunday, and Martin loved the way she was into her gallop.
“In my heart of hearts, if she trains like she trained today, it’s a good opportunity to make her a stakes winner or get stakes placed,” Martin said Sunday. “She’s sound and doing well.”
KEY CONTENDERS
Heavenly Score, by Even the Score
Last 3 Beyers: 91-72-93
◗ Came off five-month layoff with a solid third-place finish behind La Sardane in the Grade 3 Intercontinental Stakes. La Sardane came back to win the Perfect Sting in her next start.
◗ She is 2 for 6 on dirt.
◗ Luis Saez, aboard for two of her four victories, is back aboard.
Your Love, by Flatter
Last 3 Beyers: 83-85-89
◗ Has three wins and three seconds from seven starts, with her lone off-the-board finish coming when sixth in the Grade 1 Test here last summer.
◗ Last November she finished second to Berned in the Safely Kept Stakes at Laurel. Berned won Sunday’s Grade 3 Molly Pitcher at Monmouth.
Cairenn, by First Dude
Last 3 Beyers: 85-85-85
◗ Since finishing fourth in her debut, she has never finished worse than third in 11 straight starts, including a second-place finish behind Chalon in the Primonetta Stakes at Laurel in April.
This story originally appeared on DRF.com.
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