Fillies and mares tangle in Aqueduct’s Top Flight

Fillies and mares tangle in Aqueduct’s Top Flight //
By the New York Hot List Staff – Friday, April 9, 2021

Fillies and mares will be in the spotlight Saturday at Aqueduct with a small but evenly matched field of six entered in the $100,000 Top Flight Invitational. The race brings together two Florida shippers in Mrs. Danvers and Queen Nekia who will tangle with multiple graded stakes winner Horologist, who will be making her 2021 debut for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott.

Here’s the Hot List picks:

Aqueduct – the $100,000 Top Flight Invitational – Saturday – Race 5. (2) Queen Nokia was a Grade 3 winner at Gulfstream Park following a three-month layoff for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. who shipped three horses to New York last Saturday and won with all of them. Joseph will have a string of horses stabled at Belmont Park this year. Jose Ortiz gets the mount. (5) Horologist won the Beldame (G1) last year with a big speed figure and has been off since running in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff for Bill Mott. (3) Mrs. Danvers made her 2021 debut in the same race as the top choice but trainer Shug McGaughey’s horses usually need a race to get in shape. She won her only start at Aqueduct in the Comely (G3) going the nine-furlong distance in what was one of the best efforts of her career. (6) Thankful tangled with Mrs. Danvers a couple of times in the past with one victory. She won the Ladies Handicap at the Big A in January going today’s distance for Todd Pletcher whose horses were winning last weekend all over the country.

Analysis of the other NY Hot List races and the Special Saturday Pick 3 are available free of charge at this website.