Ahh Chocolate, Brooklynsway expected for Groupie Doll Stakes

A sizable field of fillies and mares is expected when entries are taken Sunday at Ellis Park for the $100,000 Groupie Doll Stakes.

The one-mile Groupie Doll will be run next Saturday (Aug. 6) as one of two stakes on the richest card of the 29-day meet, along with the revived Ellis Park Juvenile. As a Grade 3, the Groupie Doll is the only graded race at the western Kentucky track.

The lineup for the 35th Groupie Doll is expected to be led by Ahh Chocolate and Brooklynsway, both graded stakes winners this year. Ahh Chocolate won the Grade 3 Allaire duPont at Pimlico in May, while Brooklynsway won the Grade 3 Doubledogdare at Keeneland in April.

Other prospective starters from a nominations list of 24 include Academic Break, Conquest Curlgirl, Crown D’Oro, Engaginglee, Fioretti, Improv, Innovative Idea, Kathballu, and You Bought Her. As many as 12 can start.

One Groupie Doll possibility is Athena, an 18-1 winner of the Roxelana at Churchill Downs in her last start. Trainer Helen Pitts-Blasi said she probably will cross-enter the 4-year-old filly in the Groupie Doll and the $100,000 West Virginia Secretary of State, a six-furlong race to be run the same day at Mountaineer.

The Groupie Doll had been known since its 1982 inception as the Gardenia Stakes before being renamed last year to honor the two-time Eclipse champion (2012-13) who won the 2011 Gardenia as a 3-year-old.

Trainer Dale Romans will be trying to extend his own record for most wins in the Groupie Doll by sending out Engaginglee, whose recent efforts include a runner-up finish behind Curalina in the Grade 1 La Troienne and a third-place finish in the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis. Romans has won the Groupie Doll with Angela’s Love (2004), Swift Temper (2008), and Molly Morgan (2014).

“If she can run one of her better races, I’m sure she’d match up pretty well with some of those other fillies,” Romans said of Engaginglee.

The $75,000 Ellis Juvenile, which is being revived after an eight-year hiatus, is a seven-furlong race for which 25 2-year-olds were nominated.

◗ Back-to-back allowances anchor a nine-race Sunday card at Ellis, where first post daily is 12:50 p.m. Central. Every Sunday through the end of the meet is Dollar Day, with $1 specials on beer, hot dogs, and other concessions. This Sunday also is Military Appreciation Day.

◗ Field size at Ellis through the first 11 days of the meet (96 races) has averaged 8.0 starters per race, down marginally from the 2015 meet (8.18).

◗ The ever-popular wiener-dog races at Ellis are set for Aug. 20, 21, and 27.