The Heavenly Prize is the Saturday feature at Aqueduct

By NY Hot List staff | Friday, February 17, 2023

The $125,000, one mile Heavenly Prize Invitational features five horses from the older filly and mare division. The Heavenly Prize honors the Phipps family’s eight-time Grade 1-winner, whose triumphs in the 1994 Alabama, Gazelle, and Beldame earned her an Eclipse Award for Champion 3-Year-Old Filly for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey. 

Flaconet, who is the 6-5 morning line favorite, is trained by Todd Pletcher and has been stabled at Belmont Park during the winter instead of going to Florida.

“There are somewhat limited opportunities at Gulfstream Park and it just seemed like she liked it Aqueduct. We figured we would keep her there and point to the Heavenly Prize,” Pletcher said. 

In her seven starts, Flaconet raced at five different tracks picking up her first stakes victory in the Ladies at Aqueduct last month.

“She’s very honest, very consistent and seems to try hard over any surface. We’re always hoping she continues to progress,” Pletcher added. “There’s room for improvement and she’ll have to make a move forward to get into bigger types of races.”

Here are the Hot List picks for the Heavenly Prize:

The $125,000 Heavenly Prize, Aqueduct, Saturday, Race 3.

(5) Falconet won the nine-furlong Ladies on Jan. 1 earning the best speed figure of her career with a stalking trip. The Todd Pletcher runner finished first or second in all but one of her seven career starts. (2) Battle Bling was second in the Ladies behind Falconet after winning the Turnback the Alarm (G3) at Aqueduct in November. That was her third victory in a row for Rob Atras. (1) Frost Point was last seen in December winning a second-level allowance at Aqueduct for Bill Mott. She has a pair of third-place finishes in stakes races and one of them was behind Battle Bling. (3) Mommasgottarun has a pair of seconds in allowance races since Linda Rice claimed her for $50,000.

The rest of the NY Hot List picks and the Special Saturday Pick 3 are available free of charge at this website.