Woodslane Farm homebred Hail To will attempt to carry on a family tradition of performing at a high level on grass when the juvenile daughter of Kitten's Joy makes her graded stakes debut in Saturday's Grade 2, $200,000 Miss Grillo going 1 1/16 miles over the inner turf course at Belmont Park.
Hail To, a chestnut filly, is a full-sister to four-time graded stakes winning multi-millionaire Sadler's Joy, who captured the Grade 1 Sword Dancer at Saratoga in 2017. She is also a half-sister to stakes-placed Dyna Passer, third in the 2019 Jockey Club Oaks, as well as Lunaire and Wolfie's Dynaghost, who also are stakes-placed. All are out of the unraced Dynaformer mare Dynaire.
Hail To arrives at her first stakes engagement off a 20-1 upset maiden victory over Miss Grillo-rival Kinchen over a firm inner turf at Saratoga, where she settled in fifth nearly six lengths off the pace down the backstretch and rallied in deep stretch with a powerful run to win by three-quarters of a length.
On debut, Hail To was more forwardly placed over a good Saratoga inner turf, and faded to fifth, finishing 7 ¾ lengths behind subsequent Grade 1-placed Pizza Bianca.
“I didn't want her to be out as close to the front end as she was, especially with the turf course that day being very boggy,” Albertrani said. “I think she just got tired from her early efforts that day and also probably just needed a race under her belt. Second start, the plan was to be patient with her, and it worked out well. We're hoping to see a similar scenario this time around, although it doesn't appear that there's a whole lot of pace in the race. We just want to see a more patient ride.”
Albertrani expressed hope that Hail To will establish herself as a quality stayer, much like her accomplished older brother Sadler's Joy.
“I would imagine that she will stretch out with time,” Albertrani said. “What's nice about her is that in her two starts, it looked like she has a little more tactical speed than he did. With him, it was always a matter of always being dropped back and often having difficult trips and always barely getting there. She seems quite a bit like him and hopefully she'll prove to be as nice a horse as he was.”
Albertrani added that Hail To and Sadler's Joy convey a similar physical resemblance.
“They look very much alike,” Albertrani said. “The only difference is that she might be a little smaller. Body wise, they have the same frame and almost the same markings on their heads, so very similar all around.”
Hail To will be piloted by returning rider Ricardo Santana, Jr.
While the two full siblings look alike, the same cannot be said for their half-brother Wolfie's Dynaghost, who was third two starts back in the Better Talk Now on the turf at Saratoga.
“They're complete total opposites. Different coloring,” Albertrani said.
Despite boasting a strong turf pedigree, Wolfie's Dynaghost, a sophomore son of Ghostzapper, secured his two lifetime wins on the main track. But following a lackluster sixth in the seven-furlong Harrods Creek on September 25 at Churchill Downs, Albertrani said he will eye a return to grass for the colt.
Albertrani said Wolfie's Dynaghost could target the $100,000 Carle Place on October 22 at Belmont Park.
“It comes up a little quick from the time we travelled to Kentucky and back with him, so we may wait for Aqueduct,” Albertrani said. “When we shipped him to Kentucky for the Harrods Creek we were still optimistic that he might handle the dirt because he won twice on the main track, but they were on good and sloppy surfaces. We were trying to take another try and see how he would handle a dry track and I just don't think he really handled it. We'll just look at keeping him on the grass.”
Wolfie's Dynaghost has a yearling full-brother by Ghostzapper, who was bred back to Dynaire this year. Hail To has a younger full-brother by Kitten's Joy born this year.
On Sunday, Albertrani will saddle Elizabeth Mateo's Lovely Lucky, a three-time winning daughter of Lookin At Lucky, who seeks her first graded stakes score in the Grade 3, $300,000 Fasig-Tipton Waya.
Victorious against winners in July at Saratoga the past two years, Lovely Lucky has run four times at graded stakes level, with her best finish taking place in last year's Grade 2 Glens Falls at Saratoga, where she was fourth beaten 1 ½ lengths to Civil Union.
Lovely Lucky emerged triumphant off a six month layoff in an 11-furlong allowance optional claiming tilt on July 22 over Saratoga's inner turf course and enters from a distant fourth in the Grade 1 Flower Bowl Invitational on September 4 at the Spa.
“She definitely likes the longer distances,” Albertrani said. “She came back off the layoff in good form. It was soft ground at Saratoga that day and I really liked the way she handled herself. It's a pretty competitive race. She ran well last time and hopefully she can take a step forward off that.”
After racing on dirt in her first three starts, Lovely Lucky saw turf for the first time last May at Gulfstream Park when fourth going one mile. Following a next out narrow triumph on grass for a $75,000 tag at Belmont, she was a 6 ¾-length winner of her 1 3/8-mile debut against winners at Saratoga.
“When we first started her off, she ran on dirt and we didn't see a lot of effort out of her in those few races,” Albertrani said. “We put her on the grass and I actually thought she ran well in her first start on turf. It wasn't until we stretched her out when we saw the best come out of her. I think she has a nice future in some of these longer route races. We just hope to get some racing luck with her.”
Albertrani has entrusted jockey Dylan Davis with engineering the trip aboard Lovely Lucky for the Waya.
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