Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Contact: Jenny Kellner
I WANT REVENGE AMONG FAMILIAR FACES FOR EVENING ATTIRE
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Named for the venerable gelding whose career spanned eight years, Saturday’s $75,000 Evening Attire at Aqueduct Racetrack has drawn a field of five veterans headed by 2009’s Grade 1 Wood Memorial winner, I Want Revenge.
The 1 1/6 mile Evening Attire, originally scheduled for January 21, will be run as race 3 on Saturday’s 10-race card, along with the $75,000 Affectionately for fillies and mares.
Now 6, I Want Revenge is 2-for-2 at Aqueduct, having taken the Grade 3 Gotham and the Wood Memorial before being scratched with an ankle injury from the 2009 Kentucky Derby as the morning-line favorite. He returned to run twice in 2010, finishing third to Haynesfield in the Grade 2 Suburban Handicap at
Owned by IEAH Stables, Resolute Group Stables, Puglisi Racing LLC, Dubb and Frimmel, I Want Revenge returned to the worktab in late November and has since been breezing steadily for trainer Rick Dutrow, Jr., most recently going six furlongs in 1:15.65 at the Big A on Sunday.
Junior Alvarado rides I Want Revenge, the 6-5 morning-line favorite, from post position 3.
Another who has had a light schedule in recent years is multiple graded stakes winner Redding Colliery, who in 2010 won the Grade 3 Lone Star Park Handicap and the Grade 2 Hawthorne Gold Cup. The now 6-year-old son of Mineshaft ended the year with a third in the Grade 1 Clark and was promoted to second through a disqualification, and after having time off to deal with foot issues returned in November to finish sixth as the even-money favorite in the Swatara at Penn National.
“The race at Penn National was a two-turn race, and he got tired,” said Art Magnuson, assistant to trainer Kiaran McLaughlin. “He’s bigger and rounder than he was back when we first got him [in 2009] but he’s been training well and he’s ready to run.”
Alan Garcia is aboard Redding Colliery, 2-1 on the morning line, from the rail.
Newly drawn into the Evening Attire is last year’s winner, Heart Butte, who recently emerged from an 11-month layoff to take the Auld Lang Syne at Parx Racing on New Year’s Eve. Trained by Todd Pletcher, the 6-year-old son of Empire Maker also won an optional claimer at the Big A in December of 2010 to render him a perfect 2-for-2 on the inner track.
He will be ridden from Cornelio Velasquez from post position 2 at 3-1 on the morning line.
Jimanator, a 6-year-old Broken Vow gelding, will make his Aqueduct debut in the Evening Attire. He was claimed for $20,000 by trainer Michael Trombetta out of a winning effort in a seven-furlong off-the-turf race at Saratoga Race Course in August and finished second in his first start for his new connections. He then took an allowance race at Parx Racing in October by 6 ¼ lengths and topped that with a three-quarter length win over odds-on Mambo Meister in the Grade 3 Fred W. Hooper at Calder Race Course on November 26, his first stakes appearance.
“I wish I could I say there was some special secret, but he’s just gotten really good the past couple of months,” said Trombetta of the Three Diamonds Farm color-bearer, who closed out 2011 with a third-place finish behind Heart Butte in the Auld Lang Syne at Parx. “We originally claimed him at
With a record of 2-1-1 from four starts for Trombetta, Jimanator has now won 10 of his 35 career starts and earned $249,040. Saturday, he will carry high weight of 123 pounds, including David Cohen, as he leaves from post position 5 at 8-1 on the morning line.
Rounding out the field is Stronach Stables’ Thunder Ball, a winner of three straight who is making his American stakes debut.
The field for the $75,000 Evening Attire:
| PP | Horse | Jockey | Wgt | Trainer | Odds |
| 1 | Redding Colliery (KY) | A Garcia | 118 | K P McLaughlin | 2-1 |
| 2 | Heart | C H Velasquez | 120 | T A Pletcher | 3-1 |
| 3 | I Want Revenge (KY) | J Alvarado | 118 | R E Dutrow, Jr. | 6-5 |
| 4 | Thunder Ball (FL) | H Vega | 116 | J Corrales | 12-1 |
| 5 | Jimanator (KY) | D Cohen | 123 | M J Trombetta | 8-1 |
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