Plenty of Options for Avie's Tale

Jockey Rosie Napravnik gets along well with her, and trainer Josie Carroll and owner Ivan Dalos believed in the grass-favoring mare Avie’s Tale enough to let her run in the $60,000 Blushing K. D. Handicap on New Year’s Day even after the race was taken off the grass. Avie’s Tale rewarded them all with a convincing 3 1/4-length victory.

“She’s doing just great this morning,” said Carroll during training hours Sunday. “She’s just got a mind of her own and you just have to let her do her thing.”

So what might be next for this daughter of Tale of the Cat out of a Lord Avie mare?

“There’s another grass stakes for her ($60,000 Marie Krantz Memorial Handicap Jan. 29) coming up at the end of the month,” said Carroll, “and a filly and mare dirt stakes (the $60,000 Pelleteri Stakes Feb. 12) a couple of weeks after that. We’ll probably nominate her to both and see how she’s doing as those races get closer.”

Incidentally, owner Dalos, of Tall Oaks Stable, is a Canadian businessman who was the breeder of 1998 Belmont Stakes winner Victory Gallop.