Ashley Herriman
NYRA/Aqueduct Race Track

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – In the final start of her career in Sunday’s 53rd running of the Grade 3, $150,000 Long Island Handicap, Darley Stable’s Criticism (GB) will return, in a sense, to the beginning.

In 2008, the daughter of Machiavellian scored her first U.S. victory in the 1½-mile turf contest and, with the exception of a ninth-place finish in the Grade 1 Diana at Saratoga this summer, she has finished no worse than third in nine starts in this country. 

Trainer Tom Albertrani said he had considered sending the accomplished mare – who boasts a lifetime record of 8-7-3 from 21 starts both here and in Europe – to California for the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf, but ultimately opted to stay home.

“She runs better when she doesn’t have to ship,” Albertrani said.  “She never really settled in up in Saratoga and she’s done well here.  We thought this was an easier spot for her than trying to go up against Breeders’ Cup fillies and mares.” 

A stakes winner in Europe, Criticism did not try graded company until arriving in the U.S.  In her most recent start, the $600,000 Flower Bowl Invitational at BelmontPark on October 3, she narrowly missed becoming a Grade 1 winner when she yielded to Pure Clan in the stretch.

“Ever since she came from overseas, she just kept climbing the ladder,” Albertrani said.  “She’s had a great season and while she never won a Grade 1, she came close and we were happy to get her Grade 1 placed the last time.  I hope she can win this race two years in a row.”

The highweight in the field of seven, Criticism will carry 122 pounds including jockey Javier Castellano as she breaks from post position No. 5.   

Stepping up to challenge Criticism is Susan Moore and M and M Thoroughbred’s Queen of Hearts, who followed up a win in the Signature Stallions Series Stakes at Saratoga Race Course on August 10 with a pair of third-place finishes in graded company.  In the Grade 3 Glens Falls Handicap, she was beaten just a nose for second by Lemonette, and most recently she finished third in the Flower Bowl. 

“Both of her races since she won in Saratoga have been better than the last,” said trainer Jimmy Jerkens.  “And the Stallion Stakes was a race we just took a shot in because we knew she could go all day and it looked like it would suit her.”

Jerkens has been pleasantly surprised by the filly’s development.  After just two starts as a 3-year-old, she was off for ten months due to soreness and an ankle filling, and Jerkens thought she might not return at all.

“This winter down in Florida, I thought we might have to retire her,” Jerkens said.  “But we put glue-on shoes and when we came back here she started to come around.” 

Queen of Hearts will break from the rail, carrying 116 pounds with Jose Espinoza aboard. 

Completing the field are Dance Pass (IRE), a stakes winner in Ireland making her first start in the U.S.; Bubbly Jane (BRZ), coming off a win in the Possible Mate Stakes at Belmont on October 9; Tidal Dance, a supplemental entry coming off a second-place finish in allowance company at Belmont on October 22; Borrowing Base, fifth in last Saturday’s $150,000 Ticonderoga Stakes at Belmont, and Lemonette, most recently seventh in the Grade 1 Yellow Ribbon at Santa Anita on October 10.

The field for the Grade 3, $150,000 Long Island: Queen of Hearts (6-1), Jose Espinoza; Dance Pass (4-1), Ramon Dominguez; Bubbly Jane (6-1), John Velazquez; Tidal Dance (20-1),  Criticism (8-5), Javier Castellano; Borrowing Base (15-1), Joe Bravo; and Lemonette (3-1), Cornelio Velasquez.