Bart Evans’ Wasted Tears,
winner of the last three Grade III Ouija Board Stakes at Lone Star Park
including the 2011 renewal May 30, arrived at Arlington Park Saturday from her
Grand Prairie, Texas, home base to contest Saturday’s Grade III Modesty
Handicap.
The Modesty is Arlington’s
designed local prep for the Grade I Beverly D. Stakes – the Arlington Million’s
sister race – to be contested as part of the International Festival of Racing
on Arlington Million Day Aug. 13.
Last year, Wasted Tears used
her Ouija Board win as a springboard to a victory in the Grade II John Mabee
Stakes at Del Mar, but “(Arlington racing secretary) Chris Polzin talked me
into coming here this year for this race to prep for the Beverly D.,”
owner-trainer-breeder Evans said Monday morning.
“It’s beautiful here,” said
Evans, who breezed Wasted Tears five furlongs in 1:01.60 on June 30 at Lone
Star before coming to Chicago.
“I just hope it stays nice all week and it’s beautiful on Saturday as
well. I may give her a little something to do on the grass here later in
the week.”
Augustin Stable’s British-bred
Fantasia, runner-up in Belmont’s Grade I Just a Game Stakes on Belmont Stakes
Day June 11, and the Chris Block-trained pair of Team Block’s Never Retreat and
Team Block and Richard Ege’s Askbut I Won’ttell, who each breezed five furlongs
over Arlington’s firm grass Sunday in 1:06.80, are also expected for the
Modesty, as are Tracy Farmer’s La Gran Bailadora, runner-up in the Grade III
Arlington Matron May 28; Moyglare Stud’s Irish-bred Endless Expanse; Arterbum
and Stolich’s Monslewn, Magdalena Racing’s My Baby Baby, and Butterfly Stable’s
Romin Robin.
JUNIOR JUMPS RIGHT BACK INTO WINNER’S CIRCLE SUNDAY
Jockey Junior Alvarado, Arlington’s
2009 jockey champion and runner-up in the standings last season, returned to
riding Sunday at Arlington
for the first time since being sidelined with a broken collarbone suffered in a
spill May 27, and won with his second mount of the afternoon.
“I feel pretty good and I’m
very excited to win a race on my first day back,” said Alvarado after guiding
Richard Ravin’s Top Surprize, trained by Larry Rivelli, to victory in the fifth
race. “I wanted to come back sooner but my doctor made me wait an extra
week.”
JOCKEY JULIO FELIX RIDES THREE WINNERS SUNDAY
Jockey Julio Felix, hanging
his tack at Arlington
for the second straight summer, scored a hat trick Sunday at the local oval,
winning the opener on John and Libbie Thiel’s Reggiville for trainer Ingrid
Mason, the eighth on Eagle Valley Farm’s Lethal for conditioner John Haran and
the finale aboard Dario Vega’s Black Cross for trainer Scott Mullins.