Arlington Park: Peyote Patty looks ready to roll

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – She will be making her first start in a new barn, but if Peyote Patty is the same horse this year as in 2010, she can win the featured sixth race on Sunday at Arlington.

Peyote Patty is one of six horses in the main body of a third-level allowance also open to $80,000 claimers. The race is carded for one mile on turf, with two more horses entered to run only on the main track.

Trained by Fairmount Park-based Steve Fridley for the first 17 starts of her career, Peyote Patty now resides in the Chris Block stables, and while Fridley did fine work with the mare, Block is especially adept at readying horses for a return from a long layoff. Block has won with 6 of his last 13 starters coming back from at least 180 days away from the races, and Peyote Patty has not started since June 19, when she finished a bang-up second in the Lincoln Heritage Stakes for Illinois-breds. Peyote Patty’s form turned totally around when she was first switched to synthetic-surface racing from dirt, and she has proven equally adept in two turf starts, winning a restricted stakes late in the 2009 Arlington meet in her only grass race besides the Lincoln Heritage. Peyote Patty shows two Arlington main-track works at five furlongs since shipping in from a training center. One drill was the fastest of the morning, the other a near-bullet. Peyote Patty looks ready, and she should get a jump on her main rival Sunday, Romin Robin.

Romin Robin is 0-5 this year, but she has not finished worse than fourth in those races while facing high-class foes like Tapitsfly, Bay to Bay, and Hibbayeb. Romin Robin, trained by Dave Kassen, won her last two starts at Arlington in 2010, but Sunday’s one-mile distance might be slightly shorter than her best.

Caleb’s Posse headed to Prairie Mile

Trainer Donnie Von Hemel and owner Pin Oak Farm have not yet announced where Arlington-based Peter Pan Stakes winner Alternation will start next, but Von Hemel has made specific plans for another talented 3-year-old in his barn, Caleb’s Posse. Caleb’s Posse, Von Hemel said earlier this week, will start next on June 4 in the Prairie Mile at Prairie Meadows, a race Von Hemel hopes will lead to the $250,000 Iowa Derby on June 25.

Caleb’s Posse had early trouble when he finished 12th of 13 last out in the Arkansas Derby, and previous to that race he was second behind The Factor – but in front of Arkansas Derby winner Archarcharch – in the Rebel Stakes, and earlier in the Oaklawn Park meet, he won the $100,000 Smarty Jones. Caleb’s Posse’s near-term future is on dirt, but he also is proven on Polytrack, with a maiden win and a third-place finish in the Arlington-Washington Futurity here last summer.

Von Hemel said he also expects to have She’s All In ready for the Arlington Matron next week. And as for Alternation, he has returned to Chicago by way of Kentucky following his Peter Pan win, and will work sometime late in the upcoming week, Von Hemel said.