Aqueduct Preview | Garland Of Roses Stakes 2023: Disco Ebo Could Be Reid’s 3rd Big Win In 8 Days

Cash is King and LC Racing’s Disco Ebo will look to build on a fine weekend of racing for her connections in Saturday’s $120,000 Garland of Roses, a six-furlong test for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up, at Aqueduct Racetrack.

The Garland of Roses is slated as Race 8 on Saturday’s nine-race card. First post is 12:20 p.m. Eastern. 

Disco Ebo will look to provide her owners and trainer Butch Reid, Jr. with their third stakes conquest in eight days at the Big A after they sent out Dr B to a repeat score in the Grade 3 Go for Wand last Saturday and Morning Matcha, co-owned with Gary Barber, to win the NYSSS Staten Island on Sunday.

The 4-year-old Pennsylvania-bred daughter of Weigelia enters the Garland of Roses with a solid record since last October, winning 6-of-8 starts that include stakes victories in the Youngstown Oaks last November at Mahoning Valley Race Course and the Penn’s Landing in March at Parx Racing.

Last year, she finished third in this event behind Betsy Blue ahead of three straight wins, topped by her open-company triumph in the Penn’s Landing this March by 6 3/4 lengths that garnered a career and co-field-high 97 Beyer Speed Figure.

Disco Ebo followed with a game pacesetting second to stablemate Morning Matcha in the state-bred Unique Bella in April at the Bensalem oval ahead of a six-month respite that ended with a victorious return when going wire-to-wire in a seven-furlong allowance last-out on October 31.

In last year’s Garland of Roses, Disco Ebo stumbled at the start, vied for the early lead and took a short advantage at the five-sixteenths, but weakened and settled for show. Reid, Jr. said Disco Ebo is primed to bring her best race this year.

“She’s been tearing them up down there in Philly, so she really likes that track. She actually ran in [this] race last year and ran well, finished third,” said Reid, Jr. “I think she’s a more mature horse this year and she’s even filled out. She’s a bigger, stronger, heavier horse than last year.”

Disco Ebo, who also won the Shamrock Rose at Penn National as a juvenile, boasts total purse earnings of $534,644 through a record of 18-9-3-2. She will be guided from post 1 by regular pilot Frankie Pennington.

Thomas Brockley and Daryn Brockley’s Headland [post 6, Jose Lezcano] gets back to the dirt for trainer George Weaver after a distant off-the-board effort in the six-furlong Autumn Days on October 31 here when racing prominently and fading to last while struggling to change leads.

“We tried the turf as an experiment because she does have it on the backside [of her pedigree], but I think that’s why she didn’t want to change her leads that day,” said Blair Golen, Weaver’s Belmont Park-based assistant.

The 7-year-old daughter of Paynter was haltered for $62,500 out of a second-place effort in August and made her first start for new connections in the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom on October 1 at Belmont at the Big A. There, Headland set the pace in the 6 1/2-furlong sprint and held her advantage into the stretch, but drifted out in the final furlong and crossed the wire second four lengths behind Sterling Silver. Both Sterling Silver and Headland were disqualified for interference with the elevated winner Caramel Swirl, and Headland was moved to third.

Golen added that Headland has been training well into another try at her first stakes conquest. 

“She’s a little tank. She’s a very good looking horse,” said Golen. “She’s got a good body on her. She ran excellent in her first start for us and we learned a little bit about her. She’s a pleasure to be around and a joy to train.”

Ken Wheeler, Jr.’s New York-bred Kant Hurry Love [post 2, Trevor McCarthy] will look to bounce back off a fourth-place effort in the seven-furlong Pumpkin Pie on November 5 here. The 4-year-old Kantharos bay, bred by Dr. John M. McDermott and Laura G. McDermott, made her first start since August in the Pumpkin Pie and dueled for the early lead before fading in the stretch.

“She was just a square peg in a round hole,” trainer David Duggan said of the Pumpkin Pie. “This race is kind of a logical spot now in the timeframe, and we’re trying to get some open black type. If we can, it would be fantastic.”

The consistent filly is in search of her second career stakes victory after taking the state-bred Dancin Renee this spring at Belmont Park by a nose over Grannys Connection in a thrilling renewal of the six-furlong sprint. She followed with a game runner-up effort to the same rival and at the same distance in the state-bred Union Avenue Handicap on August 11 at Saratoga Race Course.

Since transferring from the barn of Christophe Clement in February, Kant Hurry Love has hit the board in 6-of-7 starts, including three wins, and has banked over $200,000.

“She’s training very well and she’s a happy little filly,” Duggan said. “She’s in the right place mentally. You can’t go wrong. She’s been a good filly to be around.”

Top Racing’s Kentucky homebred Olga Isabel [post 5, Manny Franco] streaks in off three wins for conditioner Brad Cox, most recently taking a 6 1/2-furlong third-level optional claimer by two lengths on October 26 at Keeneland.

The 4-year-old Tiznow bay has been perfect since transferring to Cox, beginning with a 7 1/4-length romp in a one-mile allowance in July at Ellis Park. She followed with a one-mile optional claiming score in August at the Spa that garnered a career-best 90 Beyer before her latest effort.

Each of her wins for Cox have come in wire-to-wire fashion without being headed.

Completing the field are:

• Nine-time winner Self Isolation [post 3, Eric Cancel] for owner/trainer David Jacobson
• Stakes-winner You Look Cold [post 4, Dylan Davis] for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott
• Hot Fudge [post 7, Kendrick Carmouche], who enters from eight days’ rest off a December 1 optional claiming score here for trainer Linda Rice