NYRA/Joe Labozzetta
Hot Stones got up in the very final stride to capture an exciting renewal of Grade 3, $150,000 Bed o’ Roses Handicap by a nose at Belmont Park on Saturday. With the victory, the 4-year-old daughter of Bustin Stones gave her New York-based sire his first progeny stakes winner and her hot-handed jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. his fifth score on the card. Hot Stones is the first New York-bred to win the race since Rightly So in 2010.
Trained by Bruce Levine for owners Roddy Valente, Charles Casale and Darlene Bilinski, Hot Stones served notice in her last start that she was developing into force to be reckoned with. Making her stakes debut in the Critical Eye Stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares three weeks ago on the Big Apple Showcase card, she got within a half-length of top sprinter La Verdad while under pressure in the stretch, for which she earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 92. The seven-furlong Bed o’ Roses also appeared to be right in the wheelhouse of a filly who had won at distances ranging from six furlongs to a mile.
NYRA/Chelsea Durand
Equipped with blinkers for the first time and drawn in post five in the competitive field of ten, Hot Stones (6-1) established an early position in fifth several paths off the rail, while Ultimate Shopper showed the way through sharp early fractions of 22.79 and 45.66 followed by Merry Meadow in hot pursuit.
Coming under urging around the far turn, Hot Stones began her more serious rally three-wide at the head of the stretch, setting her sights ultimately on Merry Meadow, who inherited the lead. Edging up with every stride in the final sixteenth, Hot Stones got her nose down first in the final jump. Calistoga finished third, four lengths behind the winner. Hot Stones’ time for seven furlongs was a speedy 1:21.98. [VIDEO]
Jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr., said “She always likes to fight a little bit when you get close to the wire. I started asking her early and she had something for the end. Thankfully, she got her head in front at the wire. I figured there would be a lot of speed in the race, but I had to move a little earlier.”
Adam Coglianese
Added Ortiz, honored by NYTB as the top rider of New York-breds in 2013, “I’m happy; I’m just doing the same thing. Winning five [races] on the day is very exciting for me, and that’s all I can say.”
Hot Stones has been steadily compiling an impressive resume since her runner-up debut at Belmont in May 2013, finishing first or second in nine out of 11 career starts, and, with the Bed o’ Roses victory, earning $363,607. A maiden-breaker second out at Saratoga, Hot Stones won through her state-bred and open allowance conditions at Belmont and Aqueduct through the fall and early winter and was freshened before her stakes debut in the Critical Eye.
Trainer Bruce Levine said, “Cutting back from a mile to seven [furlongs], I think the blinkers kept her a little closer. I didn’t know if she was going to get there; [Merry Meadow] really dug in and tried hard.”
Continued Levine, “I said, ‘If La Verdad is in [the Bed o’ Roses], she’s 4-5. Why wouldn’t I take a shot?’ I was worried a little about the 21 days [between the Critical Eye and the Bed o’ Roses], but she came back bouncing. When fillies are doing good, you have to take a shot.”
Inspired by his filly’s performance, Levine feels that he has a number of attractive options for her next start. “We were thinking about going in a New York-bred [stakes] going long. Now we have to rethink it, maybe even point to the [Grade 1] Ballerina [August 23 at Saratoga] with something in between.”
Bred in partnership by Jerry Bilinski and Roddy Valente, Hot Stones is the top earner and first stakes winner for her third crop sire Bustin Stones, an undefeated Grade 1 winning sprinter who stands at Waldorf Farm in North Chatham for a 2014 stud fee of $5,000.
Out of Steamed Up, an unraced New York-bred daughter of Freud, whose only other foal to start is also winner, Hot Stones has two younger full sisters, 2-year-old Stonely Heart and yearling Two Stonesrbettor.
