Churchill Downs: Applauding will start next at Oaklawn

Coady Photography/Keeneland

Applauding won her third straight start, winning an allowance off a year layoff.

Applauding will make her next start at Oaklawn Park after remaining unbeaten in three career races with a workmanlike triumph here Wednesday under Joe Rocco Jr. in a second-level allowance sprint. She earned a 77 Beyer, leading throughout, for a 1 1/4-length victory in the six-furlong race.

Applauding, a 3-year-old filly owned by Ramona Bass and trained by Al Stall Jr., has been closely followed by racing fans after setting the 6 1/2-furlong Polytrack record at Keeneland in winning her career debut in October 2011.

Stall said from Fair Grounds on Friday that he believes Applauding should benefit “in a big way” from her comeback effort, which came nearly a year since she won a Fair Grounds allowance. He said he is pointing her to the Jan. 20 American Beauty at Oaklawn.

“A ‘three-other-than’ won’t fill, and there aren’t any filly-mare stakes on the dirt here,” he said.