Hushion has Two for Ruffian

Trainer Michael Hushion has a pair of runners for the next Sunday's Grade 2, $250,000 Ruffian, with My Wandy's Girl slated to make her first start since winning the Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie Handicap on February 22 at Laurel Park and Parc Monceau set to step up in class off an entry-level allowance victory on April 4 at Aqueduct Racetrack.

The seven-furlong Barbara Fritchie was the second stateside stakes score for My Wandy's Girl, who won four stakes in Puerto Rico before being shipped to the United States by owner Guillero Berrios. In the Fritchie, she dueled with La Verdad and gained the upper hand late to prevail by one length. La Verdad returned to win the Grade 2 Distaff Handicap on April 19 at Aqueduct.

My Wandy's Girl has won at distances ranging from five furlongs to 1 1/8 miles, but Hushion felt that waiting for the one-mile Ruffian was a better option for the 5-year-old than competing in the six-furlong Distaff.

"The extra time after the Barbara Fritchie always is a good thing for My Wandy's Girl," said Hushion. "I wanted to send her a mile, and not that she showed me anything bad, but she runs nicely with time between races. There's a nice race in another month (Grade 1, $1 million Ogden Phipps at 1 1/16 miles on June 7) she might run in. I didn't want to run in all three."

Barry Schwartz's Parc Monceau cleared the first allowance condition in her ninth start by tracking the pace and drawing clear to a 5 ¾-length triumph in a one-mile race on the main track at Aqueduct. In her lone stakes start, she was fourth in the restricted Broom Dance in July at Saratoga Race Course.

"Parc Monceau seems like she's going to take a step forward," said Hushion. "I have a feeling she's going to fit with the way she has been training. She appears to have effloresced."

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Six Queens is likely to enter the Grade 2 Ruffian on Sunday at Belmont Park, where she will try to extend her win streak to three in her stakes debut. The dark brown or bay mare has won three of four starts in her career, with her lone blemish coming over a sloppy track at Gulfstream Park. Trained by Kiaran McLaughlin for Darley Stable, Six Queens has commenced 2014 in promising fashion, winning a pair of sprint races by a combined five lengths.

"We didn't get her until she was 3, from England - she didn't run over there," said McLaughlin. "We ran her early as a 4-year-old and she won first time out, and then finished second in the slop. She's won impressively twice this year, once in Florida and once [in New York], so we're looking for some black type. She's a very nice filly. We thought she wants a mile, being by Bernardini. It's never easy [to make your stakes debut in a spot this tough] but we're hopeful; there's a few fillies coming off long layoffs."

Six Queens is also a half-sister to Film Maker, who won the Grade 2 Lake George at Saratoga Race Course, and placed in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf and Grade 1 Flower Bowl Invitational at Belmont Park.