Omar Aldabbagh and Jeff Ganje's Shotgun Hottie recently made the move from the barn of Tom Amoss to conditioner William Morey's stable at Belmont Park, recording her first work in the Empire State on Jan. 25 in preparation for the $100,000 Ruthless for sophomore fillies going seven furlongs on Sunday, Feb. 6, at Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, N.Y.
A bay daughter of Gun Runner, Shotgun Hottie breezed a half-mile over Belmont's dirt training track in 49.78 seconds.
“The work went very well,” Morey said. “I train for the client and have another horse for them at Turfway. They called me and asked if I could take this filly and of course I said yes, so we sent her up to New York. She's easy to train and every horse I've had here has trained well over the training track at Belmont.”
A $45,000 purchase at the Ocala Breeders' Sale of 2-year-olds in training, Shotgun Hottie finished second in her 6 1/2-furlong debut in September at Churchill Downs before ultimately breaking her maiden at third asking when stretching out to 1 1/16 miles at Churchill.
Shotgun Hottie finished fourth last out in the Untapable at Fair Grounds on December 26 in her stakes debut, setting the pace for the mile and 70 yards before tiring and finishing 3 1/2 lengths behind winner North County, who is undefeated in three starts.
Morey's most recent win at the Big A came with 4-year-old filly Blushable, who took down a starter allowance on Jan. 6 for owners Mark Mathiesen, Sandra Benowitz, and Michael House.
“She's doing good and was supposed to run on Saturday but the card was canceled, so we entered her in one of the extras for Thursday and hopefully she gets in,” Morey said.
Blushable earned a career-best 70 Beyer Speed Figure for her allowance win and now boasts a record of 9-3-0-1 with earnings of $99,355.
A new addition to the Morey barn is veteran ridgling American Rule, who was claimed for $32,000 out of a well-beaten 11th in a claimer over a sloppy and sealed track at Aqueduct on Dec. 11. The 7-year-old son of Bernardini made his first start for Morey and new owners Robert Bone and Desperado Stables on Friday, getting back to a fast track and finishing a much-improved third in a one-turn mile claiming event.
“We were happy with his run and he came out of it good,” Morey said. “It was encouraging to see him get back to some of his old form. It looked like he didn't like the mud much the last time. I'm sure we'll look for a similar spot for his next race there at Aqueduct.”
American Rule has four wins from 45 lifetime starts with all but five of those starts occurring at NYRA tracks. Out of the stakes-placed Ghostzapper mare Myriad, American Rule is a half-brother to the multiple graded stakes-placed gelding Markitoff.
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