Miss T Too wins an allowance Sep. 4, 2020 at Churchill Downs (Coady Photography)
NYRA Press Office
OZONE PARK, N.Y.— Stoneway Farm’s Kentucky homebred Miss T Too looks to end her career on a high note in Saturday’s $100,000 Interborough for fillies and mares 4-years-old and upward going seven furlongs at Aqueduct Racetrack.
The bay daughter of perennial leading North American sire Into Mischief boasts a consistent but lightly-raced 11-2-2-3 record for a 6-year-old mare, which includes a second out graduation in March 2020 going a one-turn mile at Gulfstream Park where she defeated eventual graded stakes winner Envoutante and stakes-placed Mylastfirstkiss.
She triumphed against winners by five lengths that September at Churchill Downs, registering a career-best 97 Beyer Speed Figure. Her lone two starts at stakes level were off the board efforts in the Grade 3 Indiana Oaks at Horseshoe Indianapolis and the Fort Springs at Keeneland, both in 2020.
Transferred from the barn of Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott to Michael McCarthy last year, Miss T Too enters Saturday’s engagement off a pair of third-place finishes at sprinting allowance level. She was most recently beaten 3 1/2 lengths on December 15 over the all-weather surface at Turfway Park.
Terri Burch, racing manager for Stoneway Farm, confirmed that the Interborough would most likely be the final start for Miss T Too before being sent to their farm in La Grange, Kentucky – just 25 miles outside of Louisville.
“We’re looking to get her stakes placed before bringing her home to breed her,” Burch said. “We have a couple stallions at Coolmore picked out. I expect that we’ll breed her fairly strong and get some nice babies out of her.”
Burch described Miss T Too as a mare with a strong personality, who needed time to develop.
“She’s a pretty high strung girl who likes doing things her own way,” Burch said. “They just have to mature into their bodies and sometimes you have to wait on them to grow up. That’s why she’s been lightly raced. A lot of it was a matter of growing up and filling into her body. A lot of times when they do that, they aren’t always doing what you want them to do the right way, so sometimes they just need to grow up. We’ve been very fortunate to have the farm that we can send the horses to and give them some time off when they need to develop and grow.”
Miss T Too has now finished developing and maturing according to Burch and has a better understanding of what’s required of her.
“She’s finished growing and her mind is much better now,” Burch said. “She’s more adaptable to what you want to do with her instead of just jumping out of the gate and go as fast as you can as far as you can until you run out of energy and then finish where you finish. Now, you can actually rate her. She’s been breezing well. I’ve been happy with her, watching her works, so we’re hopeful.”
Miss T Too is out of the stakes-winning Midnight Lute mare Midnight Ballet, who also was campaigned by Stoneway. Burch said Midnight Ballet, who won the 2012 Sharp Cat at the now defunct Hollywood Park, was also a sizeable horse who conveyed a bold attitude.
“She didn’t think she was a horse. She thought she was a person and had to be kept up as this queen standard,” Burch recalled. “We had to bring her home once and we had her in a paddock and she did nothing but stare at the barn. She refused to graze, eat or anything, so we had to bring her in and keep her pampered. She had to be in her stall, groomed every day and the fan on her in the summer. Miss T Too does not like to be turned out either. We tried her in a round pen and she hates it. She’s very much like her mother that way. Midnight Ballet is a broodmare so she doesn’t mind going out now, but she sure likes being pampered still.”
Burch reported that Midnight Ballet is currently in foal with a three-quarters sibling to Miss T Too, by Practical Joke, that is due to be born this year.
Eric Cancel will pilot Miss T Too from post 2.
