Aspen Grove captures the Belmont Oaks (G1) July 8, 2023, at Belmont Park (Joe Labozzetta)
NYRA Press Office
OZONE PARK, N.Y.— Glen Hill Farm and Mrs. John Magnier’s Grade 1-winner Aspen Grove, a top contender for the Grade 1, $750,000 New York presented by Rivers Casino on June 7, is among a compact but talented group of horses training at Saratoga Race Course for upcoming stakes events on the NYRA circuit for conditioner Jack Sisterson.
Also enjoying their time training over the Oklahoma training dirt are Listed stakes winner Vive Veuve, who is pointing to Monday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Wonder Again at Belmont at the Big A; the well-bred maiden Wrigleyville and allowance runner Ten Days Later.
“We have a nice little group up here. We’re trying to be selective as possible and bring the right types to New York as It’s obviously very competitive,” said Sisterson, who noted that additional stock will be arriving from Florida soon.”
Aspen Grove, a 4-year-old Justify bay, launched her career in her native Ireland for trainer James Stack where she won the 2022 Group 3 Irish EBF going one mile over good turf at The Curragh.
She shipped to Belmont Park last year and rallied to an impressive three-quarter length score in the 10-furlong Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational before off-the-board efforts in Grade 1 events when fifth versus colts in the Saratoga Derby Invitational and sixth against older fillies and mares in the E.P. Taylor at Woodbine – the latter in the care of Sisterson.
Aspen Grove has performed well through adversity in a pair of nine-furlong graded starts this season, overcoming a dawdling pace to finish a close second in the Grade 2 Hillsborough in March at Tampa Bay Downs and a last-of-11 rush to finish third, defeated one length, in the Grade 3 Modesty on May 3 over yielding going at Churchill Downs.
“She’s doing extremely well at the minute. She seems to have gotten better from 3-to-4,” Sisterson said. “She looks a stronger filly and has had two good runs. The pace didn’t really set up for her in the Hillsborough and then she got squeezed at the start in the Modesty and didn’t get a real good trip, but she was finishing up both races really well.
“This next race will be her third race off a layoff and she should be peaking at the right time come the New York in a couple weeks,” added Sisterson.
Aspen Grove worked a half-mile in 49.65 seconds Friday over the Oklahoma dirt training track.
Sterling Stables’ Vive Veuve is slated to make her next start in Monday’s nine-furlong Wonder Again which offers the top-three finishers an invite to the Grade 1, $500,000 Belmont Oaks Invitational – a 1 3/16-mile turf test for sophomore fillies on July 6 at Belmont at the Big A.
Vive Veuve, out of the Group 3-winning Lope de Vega mare Candy Store, worked a half-mile in 48.48 Monday in company with maiden Wrigleyville over the Oklahoma dirt training track.
Glen Hill Farm’s homebred sophomore filly Wrigleyville, by Into Mischief and out of the multiple Grade 1-winning Medaglia d’Oro mare Marketing Mix, finished a closing third on debut sprinting five furlongs on April 20 over the Gulfstream Park turf. She is pointing to a six-furlong turf maiden on the Wonder Again undercard.
“The two of them have been working in company – Wrigleyville will be pointed to a maiden on the same day as the Wonder Again,” Sisterson said. “We thought they’d be a nice team to work together to run on the same day. They worked well.”
Marketing Mix did her best running around two turns, taking the 2012 Grade 1 Rodeo Drive going 10 furlongs at Santa Anita Park en route to a runner-up effort in that year’s Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf over the same distance and course. She captured the nine-furlong Grade 1 Gamely the following year as part of a tremendous 21-10-5-1 career record for purse earnings in excess of $2 million.
Sisterson said the goal is to eventually stretch Wrigleyville out further in distance.
“She doesn’t come across like a sprinter,” Sisterson said. “We thought two sprints to a potential route would be a good stepping stone for her, so that’s why we decided on a six-furlong maiden to give her another start under her belt before we stretch her out to a mile or a mile and a sixteenth.”
A race like the 1 1/16-mile Grade 3, $175,000 Lake George on July 20 at Saratoga would seem a good fit if Wrigleyville continues to progress.
“Getting some black type with a filly like this would be extremely valuable for the farm,” Sisterson said.
Ten Days Later, a 4-year-old Collected colt, banked $189,325 through a 14-1-2-5 record for trainer Ken McPeek.
“He’s a recent purchase. We’ll wait for the Saratoga condition book to come out and then look for a spot for him,” Sisterson said.
