Gatsas Stable, R. A. Hill Stable, and Steven Schoenfeld's Midnight Stroll is scheduled to make her 2023 debut in Saturday's $150,000 Royal Delta (G3), conceding Gulfstream Park experience and recently to highly regarded Kathleen O. and Classy Edition.
Kathleen O., who captured three straight stakes at Gulfstream last year and who returned from an eight-month layoff to finish a sharp second in the Nov. 22 Comely (G3) at Aqueduct. Classy Edition, who made a splash while winning a Gulfstream optional claiming allowance by 5 ¼ length in her seasonal debut following a 3-year-old campaign that included a runner-up finish to Kathleen O. in the Davona Dale (G2) at Gulfstream.
Nevertheless, Midnight Stroll's credentials stack up very well against the two fillies with Gulfstream Park experience.
“She's a very athletic type. She's obviously gotten stronger, physically and mentally. She's always been a class act. She's very good to ship anywhere,” said trainer John Terranova, who will ship Midnight Stroll from Tampa Bay Downs. “She has a great mind. She handles everything very well. She seems real sharp and ready to take on the fillies there.”
Midnight Stroll began her 2022 season with back-to-back front-running wins at Tampa Bay Downs, including a victory in the Sophomore Fillies, a seven-furlong stakes for Florida-breds. The daughter of Not This Time lost all chance in Black-Eyed Susan (G2) at Pimlico while encountering traffic on the first turn.
“The conditions were pretty awful and she got bumped and checked pretty hard on the first turn and carried wide a little bit. She lost a lot of position,” Terranova said. “It was a big reach, a big jump, going for that, but she came out of that well and rebounded to take the Delaware Oaks and we had a couple of nice runs backing up in sprints at Charles Town and Keeneland to finish off the season.”
Midnight Stroll captured the 1 1/16-mile Delaware Oaks (G3) before finishing third in both the seven-furlong Charles Town Oaks (G3) and the seven-furlong Raven Run (G2) at Keeneland.
“I think the filly will be looking forward to and appreciate the route,” Terranova said. “We were looking at those [sprint] stakes as opportunities for her, a real sharp young filly. She did win that stake at Tampa going seven-eighths. They were nice opportunities with big purses to run for. She ran really well in both of them.”
Terranova is confident that Midnight Stroll will be able to adapt as the Royal Delta shapes up.
“She's been forwardly placed in races; she's backed off a little bit; she's really tactical,” Terranova said. “I think she's one of those fillies that depending on her and the way the race develops, she's effective from multiple positions.”
Edgard Zayas is scheduled to ride Midnight Stroll for the first time in the Royal Delta.
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