Issue link: http://nytbreeders.epubxp.com/i/127475
AdAM CogliANese/NYRA Familiar sighting: Saul Kupferberg (second from left) and his dad, Max, in the winner's circle at Aqueduct Sunny Days Ahead Saul and Max Kupferberg look bright with the success of their Sunny Desert BY TeResA geNARo hen Saul Kupferberg and his father, Max, claimed the 2-year-old filly Sunny Desert in 2011, she had run twice: beaten 181/2 lengths in a sixth-place finish in a maiden special weight, and a second-place finish, beaten a halflength, in a $35,000 maiden claimer. "We were hoping," Saul said recently, "that she'd be good enough to win a maiden special weight." Since then, the New York-bred daughter of Wild Desert has won W 30 eight of 12 races, including six stakes, most recently the Shot Berry Stakes, run at a mile April 14 at Aqueduct, along with two seconds and a third. Sunny Desert ran the Shot Berry on short rest, just two weeks after she won the six-furlong Broadway Stakes for New York-breds March 30. Trainer John Parisella has generally given her about two months between races. "(Racing her on short rest) is against what I believe in," said Parisella two days before the Shot Berry, "but there aren't any races for her until Showcase Day on June 1. "If I'm wrong, it's not going to hurt me; we'll still have six weeks. She came out of the Broadway great, and you just hope that it's worth taking this opportunity. I don't know if the short rest will work against her, but she figures the best on paper." She figured the best on the track, too, though she had to work a little harder for this win than she has recently, the three-quarter-length vic- New York Breeder ❙ nytbreeders.org ❙ May 2013