OZONE PARK, NY- Veteran conditioner Jimmy Ferraro will be represented by a pair of stakes contenders on Saturday’s lucrative Wood Memorial card in Easy to Bless in the Grade 3, $150,000 Distaff Handicap and Sanctuary City in the $100,000 Danger’s Hour.
Amsterdam Two Stables’ Easy to Bless will step up to graded company for the first time in the Distaff Handicap, a seven-furlong test for older fillies and mares. She enters from an impressive 9 3/4-length score in the Xtra Heat, a 6 1/2-furlong sprint on the March 26 New York Claiming Championship card.
“She performed even better than I expected. I know there wasn’t too much quality wise in the race, but she really was 100 percent on her game,” Ferraro said.
The 4-year-old Flat Out dark bay, who has made her last five starts at the Big A, was a seven-length winner of an optional-claiming sprint on February 4 over sloppy and sealed going and followed on February 24 with a fifth-place effort. Her last two victories have garnered matching 90 Beyers.
“She’s won two of her last three. I’m not sure what happened in the race in-between, maybe she had an off day,” Ferraro said. “She’s maturing. She just turned four and we’re hoping she’s getting better.”
Ferraro said the decision to claim Easy to Bless for $40,000 out of a runner-up effort in July at Saratoga was an easier task than winning the shake.
“She likes to win. Any horse that can win eight out of 17 races is a good one. She’s a runner,” Ferraro said. “Everyone was out there shopping and we ended up winning a 16-way shake for her. The whole race office was filled up with claiming trainers and potential owners.”
Ferraro said Easy to Bless, who exits the inside post under returning rider Jacqueline Davis, could be on the lead Saturday.
“The way Jackie was describing her is she don’t like to fight with her. Now it’s a little farther, so she might be up closer than we anticipate,” Ferraro said. “Maybe we’ll fall on the lead by default if nobody else wants it. She’s training excellent.”
Ferraro said he is hopeful Easy to Bless can hold her own in a contentious field of six that includes the 4-year-old debuts of Grade 1-winner Search Results and Grade 2-winner Zaajel, as well as the in-form older mare Glass Ceiling.
“There’s a couple in there that were nice 3-year-olds and now they have to transfer their form as a 4-year-old. That’s the unknown factor going with older horses,” Ferraro said.
Edward J. Messina and William J. Butler’s multiple stakes placed New York-homebred Sanctuary City will make his 5-year-old debut in the Danger’s Hour, a one-mile inner turf test for older horses.
The Temple City bay won the first two starts of a productive 2021 campaign in which he posted a record of 8-2-1-2 for purse earnings of $179,245. He kicked off his 4-year-old season with a rallying 1 3/4-length score in a six-furlong state-bred optional-claimer in April 2021 and followed one month later with a half-length score in an open one-mile optional-claimer.
Ferraro noted Sanctuary City, who graduated at third asking in his sophomore debut in July 2020 at Belmont, has a penchant for firing fresh.
“Two years in a row he won first time out off a layoff. This is probably the toughest spot he’s tried to accomplish that in. He broke his maiden off a layoff and won first time out last year off a layoff,” Ferraro said. “He’s been training steady, nothing spectacular. I don’t think he’s a fan of the training track, it’s kind of heavy for him.”
Ferraro said Sanctuary City has matured and carrying good flesh for his seasonal debut.
“Physically, you can see he’s filled out more. His neck is stronger. That’s one of the benefits of not gelding him, he has that natural testosterone,” Ferraro said.
Sanctuary City has won at distances ranging from six furlongs to 1 1/16-miles and concluded last year’s campaign with a seventh-place finish – defeated four lengths – in the 11-furlong Grade 3 Red Smith on November 20 at the Big A, just two weeks after a runner-up effort in the 1 1/16-mile Mohawk against fellow state-breds at Belmont.
“It seems like he can handle any distance. He’s won at three-quarters, he’s won going long. The Temple Citys can run all day,” Ferraro said. “Last time we ran him, towards the end of the turf season, we tried to squeeze one more race into him. He maybe ran back quick but it still wasn’t a bad outing even though he didn’t hit the board.”
Ruben Silvera retains the mount from the outermost post 8 in a field led by the graded-stakes winning New York-bred Rinaldi and multiple graded stakes placed Value Proposition.
NYRA Press Release
Photo: NYRA Photo
