Sara Street’s last race came on a rainy day in May at Pimlico. When she begins her comeback Friday at Aqueduct, the conditions are forecast to be eerily similar.
That’s not necessarily a good thing for Sara Street, who finished fourth as the favorite in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan, but trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said she is likely to start even if the track is sloppy once again.
“She may not have liked the wet track in her last race, and it’s supposed to rain in New York on Friday, so we’re not excited about that,” McLaughlin said. “But we’re going to run her. We don’t have much choice – it’s been seven months.”
Regardless of the conditions, Sara Street will be favored in the one-mile first-level allowance. In her races prior to the Black-Eyed Susan, the 3-year-old Godolphin-owned and -bred daughter of Street Sense won an Aqueduct maiden race and finished second in the $200,000 Busher and the Grade 2 Gazelle.
McLaughlin has been patient bringing Sara Street back. He worked her twice in June at the Greentree Training Center in Saratoga but backed off. Starting in late July he worked her three times at Greentree and Saratoga Race Course but once again stopped on her.
Following a two-month break, he has worked her seven times at Belmont Park since Oct. 22.
“She came out of the Black-Eyed Susan with a few little issues,” McLaughlin said. “We’ve started and stopped on her a few times.
Sara Street is the best foal to race out of three-time graded winner Sara Louise, who won the Grade 3 Pocahontas going a mile at Churchill Downs in 2008 and the Grade 3, six-furlong Victory Ride and Grade 2 Top Flight at a mile in 2009.
Pecan Pattie, a 10-length winner of a November off-the-turf maiden race while making her first start in a year, is Sara Street’s top rival.
Entered for the main track only that day, Pecan Pattie went right to the lead in the mile race and then effortlessly pulled away in the final quarter-mile.
Dylan Davis has the mount on Sara Street. Manny Franco rides Pecan Pattie, who is trained by Danny Gargan.
This story originally appeared on DRF.com.
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