LAUREL, MD – Five Hellions Farm’s multiple stakes-winning 4-year-old filly Dontletsweetfoolya, unraced since mid-June, has been working steadily toward a scheduled return later this month.
The 4-year-old daughter of Grade 1 winner Stay Thirsty shows four works over Laurel Park’s newly renovated main track since mid-September for trainer Lacey Gaudet, the most recent a half-mile breeze in 48 seconds Oct. 2, fourth-fastest of 57 horses.
Dontletsweetfoolya, who returned to Gaudet’s barn in late August following some time off, also worked five furlongs in a sharp 59.80 seconds Sept. 26 under her regular rider, Jevian Toledo, ranking second of 27 horses.
Gaudet scratched Dontletsweetfoolya from an optional claiming allowance Sept. 30 at Laurel sprinting 5 ½ furlongs on the grass, a surface the filly has never tried, to make sure she is fully prepared for her comeback.
“She’s worked great since she’s been back. She’s absolutely on the right track,” Gaudet said. “She worked huge the other day with Toledo and that was going to be our tell-tale. I asked him, ‘Do you think she’s ready,’ and he said, ‘I think she could be, but I’m not sure if she’s 100 percent fit.’ I said, ‘You know her as good as anybody else and if you don’t think she’s 100 percent fit when we’re not going to do it.
“We didn’t want to rush her. We just brought her in a month ago and when we brought her in, she looked great,” she added. “We’re trying to give her every opportunity to return to the form she had last year.”
After going winless in two starts at 2 and her 3-year-old debut, Dontletsweetfoolya reeled off five consecutive wins in 2020 from July 24 to Dec. 26, the last two of them in six-furlong dirt stakes – the Primonetta and Willa On the Move.
Dontletsweetfoolya opened this year running seventh in the Runhappy Barbara Fritchie (G3) Feb. 20, then was sidelined amid a minor equine herpesvirus outbreak at Laurel where she tested positive but did not get sick. She returned to be fourth in the May 15 Skipat at historic Pimlico Race Course before finishing 13 lengths behind then-undefeated Chub Wagon in a June 13 Shine Again field that also included fellow multiple stakes winners Hello Beautiful, Never Enough Time and since-retired Anna’s Bandit.
“She went through a lot last year. She had a really tough campaign,” Gaudet said. “She was on the farm for 21 days and then we had to rush her back into that spring season and she was always kind of behind the 8-ball. We think that she’s a little bit of a better filly. Obviously she’s shown that from five wins in a row.
“We just wanted to give her the best opportunity to finish up [this] year, so we turned her out and gave her 60 days on the farm. Literally she was out 24-7. She looked fantastic when she came in,” she added. “She’s pretty darn fit. We do like the seven-eighths race at the end of [the] month. She’s eligible for the allowance race here and we’ll see how she comes back.”
Another Gaudet charge making a comeback is multiple stakes-placed 3-year-old filly Fraudulent Charge, owned by the trainer and Five Hellions Farm, who is entered in a starter allowance Friday at Belmont Park. She drew Post 11 of 15 in the seven-furlong sprint for fillies and mares 3 and up.
Fraudulent Charge has raced four times, running second in the Gin Talking to end 2020 and the Feb. 20 Wide Country and March 13 Beyond the Wire, her most recent start. She returned to the work tab in late August for the first time in four months.
“She’s good,” Gaudet said. “We’re aiming for a starter race to try and get her a win before we go back into stakes company. We’ll see what happens. It’s kind of tough for those kinds of horses, but she’s doing fantastic. She’s had a couple of powerful works. We’ve got lots to look forward to.”
Gaudet said KEM Stables and Five Hellions Farm’s 2-year-old Malibu Moon ridgling H.P. Moon, an impressive debut winner Aug. 21 at Pimlico, will be out 60 to 90 days after having minor surgery to remove an ankle chip.
“He’ll be back at the beginning of the year. It was small. Thank goodness it was earely and we caught it,” she said. “I think that he’ll have a great 3-year-old year. I think he’s going to be a really, really nice horse. He’s special.”
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Laurel Press Release
Photo: Dontletsweetfoolya ( Laurel Park Photo)
