Sunday, March 30, preview

The upcoming switch back to the traditional Wednesday-through-Sunday schedule has led to 10 racing days during the 11-day stretch from last Thursday through April 6. When you combine that shortsightedness with a winter-weary local horse population and a turf course that will not be usable until Saturday at the earliest, the result is a menu like Sunday’s, where only 57 runners could be rounded up for the nine races.

Seven of those races are for fillies and mares; the two for males are a New York-bred maiden claimer and a straight $25,000 claimer for 3-year-olds. The likelihood of an off track will reduce those 57 varieties further still.

Points of interest include:

• Mess in a Dress, who, after losing 24 races in a row, tries for her third win in 10 days in the opener.

• In race 8, a one-mile optional claimer for New York-bred fillies and mares that serves as the nominal feature, Familyofroses should relish getting back to a chute race for 20-year-old trainer Robert Falcone Jr. Familyofroses won twice out of Belmont’s long chute last fall and just missed on the main track here in November in a New York Stallion event at seven furlongs.