Shine Again Stakes: Preview and analysis

In the Navy Now (#2) won but was disqualified in the 2016 Weber City Miss. Photo by The Racing Biz.

From a Maryland Jockey Club release

Her last try against stakes competition resulted in R. Larry Johnson and R.D.M. Racing Stable’s In the Navy Now being demoted to second for drifting out in the stretch of a one-length victory over stablemate A.P. Majetstic in the 2016 Weber City Miss at Laurel.

The 4-year-old Midshipman filly didn’t race again until May, returning with a late-running head victory in a six-furlong allowance at Penn National. Winless in three tries since, she returns to stakes company in the $75,000 Shine Again.

In the Navy Now’s comeback victory May 4 was her first race at a sprint distance since December 2015 and just the fourth overall. She was third and beaten a neck in a pair of second-level optional claiming allowances going a mile and 70 yards in Pennsylvania before running third by three lengths to Shine Again rival Bombshell in a similar spot at about 1 1/16 miles Aug. 11 at Laurel.

Julian Pimentel has the call on the In the Navy Now from Post 7 of 13 at 118 pounds, four fewer than topweight Momameamaria.

“She’s been training good. It’s a cutback in distance for her but I think if she gets a lively pace, which she should probably get in a big field, she could probably find her way to run on and maybe get lucky and get a piece of it,” trainer Mike Trombetta said.

“You always worry about the cutback but she’s won at three-quarters and she’s won at a mile and a sixteenth,” he added. “Some horses find these middle distances to work for them, and some don’t. You have to go ahead and jump in and try it.”

Trainer Kieron Magee entered the pair of Cornelius Ridgely’s Boheme de Lavi and Sheffield Stable’s Line of Best Fit. Boheme de Lavi, a 6-year-old Graeme Hall mare, will be making her 49th career start in the Shine Again and first since being re-claimed by Magee out of a half-length loss Aug. 12 at Delaware.

“I’ve had her two or three times before. She finished second in the stake last year,” Magee said. “She’s one of those horses that tries all the time. She likes to run on the outside. We’ll take a look at the race and talk with the owners and see what they want to do, but I’m sure they’ll want to give it a shot.”

Boheme de Lavi rallied to be second at odds of nearly 14-1, beaten 1 ¼ lengths, in last year’s Shine Again, and is the only horse to return from the 2016 running. An eye injury kept her away from the races for three months but she has raced 11 times this year with three wins, having changed hands four times.

“She came out of the race and had a spot on her eye and we worked on it. WE sent her up to New Bolton and we did save the eye, but we lost a lot of vision in there,” Magee said. “She’s a cool horse. She’s really a sweetheart. The owners have had her with me a couple of times. When she got put back in last time they sent me a text and said, ‘Go get our baby.’”

Line of Best Fit is a 15-time career winner from 39 starts who picked up some black type when third by three lengths behind recently retired champion Songbird in the Delaware Oaks (G1) July 15. The Shine Again comes just five days after the 7-year-old Trajectory mare was second by a nose in a 6 ½-furlong allowance on closing day of the Maryland State Fair meet at Timonium.

“We probably could have pushed out on the first turn and the rider didn’t and left himself nowhere to go, and the winner got a move on us. We were sitting off of it and had to check and hit the brakes a little bit going into the second turn and we couldn’t make up the ground,” Magee said. “She’s a warrior. She’s just a warrior. She leaves it all on the racetrack.”

Angel Serpa is named on Boheme de Lavi from Post 4 while J.D. Acosta, Timonium’s leading rider with 14 wins, has the call on Line of Best Fit from Post 6, both at 118 pounds.

Also with a pair of entrants are trainers Gary Capuano and New York-based Jimmy Jerkens. For ZWP Stable, Inc. and Non Stop Stable Capuano is set to send out Elusive Joni, third by a length in the May 20 The Very One on the Preakness (G1) undercard at historic Pimlico Race Course, and multiple stakes-placed Lucky in Malibu, a rallying fourth in the six-furlong Miss Disco Aug. 19 at Laurel last out.

Jerkens is sending Team Valor International’s Bombshell, a winner of two straight capped by a front-running optional claiming allowance triumph going about 1 1/16 miles Aug. 11 at Laurel, and Joseph V. Shields Jr.’s Summer Reading, whose multiple stakes placings include a second in the six-furlong Skipat May 19 at Pimlico.

Grade 3-placed Stormy Sky; Momameamaria, fourth in the seven-furlong Shine Again Aug. 9 at Saratoga; Lake Ponchatrain, Summer House, Super Sharp and True Romance complete the field.