Morning Matcha goes for third stakes win in $125K NYSSS Staten Island

LC Racing, Cash is King and Gary Barber’s Grade 1-placed Morning Matcha will strive for her third career stakes victory in Sunday’s $125,000 Staten Island division of the New York Stallion Stakes Series, a seven-furlong sprint for eligible state-sired fillies and mares 3-years-old and up, at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Trained by Butch Reid, Jr., Morning Matcha, a Pennsylvania-bred 4-year-old daughter of Central Banker, benefits from a pair of lucrative programs, and is eligible to participate in both races restricted to Pennsylvania-breds in the Keystone State, as well as the New York Stallion Stakes Series in New York.

Reid, Jr. spoke volumes of the filly’s smart breeding.

“There’s some nice spots for her all year round as long as we pick our spots and she stays happy and healthy like she is now,” said Reid, Jr. “It’s been a real godsend.”

Morning Matcha arrives off a third-place finish in the open-company nine-furlong Turnback the Alarm on November 3 here, landing four lengths back of the top pair of the winning Interstatedaydream and Tizzy in the Sky, the latter of which is entered in Saturday’s Grade 3 Go for Wand here. The effort garnered an 85 Beyer Speed Figure and was her fifth stakes placing this year, bringing her 2023 record to 6-1-2-2 with her only off-the-board effort coming on turf in August.

Last year, Morning Matcha enjoyed a productive campaign that included a win in the Main Line at Parx Racing and placings in the Grade 3 Delaware Oaks [third] at Delaware Park, the Grade 1 Cotillion [second] at Parx and the Grade 3 Comely [third] here. She returned in April to take the state-bred Unique Bella at Parx, her latest trip to the winner’s circle when taking the seven-furlong sprint by two lengths.

An $18,000 purchase at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling Sale, Morning Matcha has banked $830,990 in total purses through a consistent lifetime record of 23-5-7-7.

Mychel Sanchez has the call from post 7.