Adore finds softer company in Panthers Stakes
Adore, in search of her first stakes win, gets major class relief when she starts Thursday night at Prairie Meadows in the $65,000 Panthers Stakes, a prep for the Iowa Oaks later this month.
Though she probably never was a serious candidate for the race, Adore at least was mentioned as a possible runner in the Kentucky Oaks, which says a lot about how snugly she fits the Panthers, a one-mile race around two turns that attracted 10 entrants. Adore did wind up running on the Oaks card but started instead in the Edgewood, her first race on grass, and ran below her best form, chasing a decent pace and fading to eighth.
But one only need look back one start farther into her past-performance lines to find a race that makes Adore clearly the one to beat in the Panthers. A 4-1 shot in the Fair Grounds Oaks, Adore contested the pace and held decently for third behind the victorious Land Over Sea, who would finish second in the Kentucky Oaks, and Dream Dance, who came back to win a dirt allowance race at Keeneland.
Adore, a Big Brown filly trained by Steve Asmussen for Winchell Thoroughbreds, drew post 3 and has Ramon Vazquez named to ride. Adore has tactical speed and could set up shop just behind the rail-drawn front-runner Battle Girl and a couple of horses with speed and outside posts, Luna Azteca and My Master Plan.
My Master Plan and Battle Girl class up well enough to get into the exacta, but if the pace turns too demanding, Bonita Cat could rally into the picture at a price. She was spun seven wide turning for home, finishing fifth of 10, in an Oaks Day two-turn allowance at Churchill. She won a first-level route allowance two races ago at Oaklawn by coming from well off the pace in a short-stretch mile.
The Panthers is carded as race 8 of 9 with a scheduled post time of 8:42 p.m. Central. The forecast calls for warm, dry conditions, and a fast track should be expected.