Allowance or turf stakes for 'Petionville'?

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Petionville Indeed, a stakes winner in Texas in July, will make her fifth consecutive start on a different turf course this week at Hollywood Park.

As of Sunday, owner Jeff Nielsen and trainer Marcel Polanco had not decided if she would start in an allowance race on Wednesday or Saturday's $150,000 Dahlia Handicap.

They were expected to reach a decision before scratch time on Tuesday for Wednesday's race.

Wednesday's allowance race at 1 1/16 miles on turf offers a $43,000 purse and a potential confidence boost for Petionville Indeed, who is winless in her last three starts, all stakes. If she starts in Saturday's Grade 2 Dahlia over the same distance, Petionville Indeed would be a longshot attempting to win her first graded stakes.

Polanco would like to try the allowance race, end the losing streak, and then consider stakes at Santa Anita for the 3-year-old Petionville Indeed.

After winning the Lone Star Oaks on July 4 for trainer Dallas Keen, Petionville Indeed finished last of eight in the Grade 1 Garden City Breeders' Cup Handicap at Belmont Park in September, a troubled fourth in the $200,000 Calder Oaks in October, and 11th on yielding turf course in the Grade 2 Mrs. Revere Stakes at Churchill Downs last month.

Wednesday's race is Petionville Indeed's first start for Polanco and first start in California.

"After they put her in the tougher races she got a little sour," Polanco said. "When she came to me, she was a little skinny and didn't want to eat for a few days. But she's training a lot better."

In the allowance race, Petionville Indeed drew the rail and would face eight opponents, including Alozaina, third in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks in 2002; Daneleta, who was stakes placed in France last year; and Kiss and Fly, a stakes winner in France last year.

Similar to Petionville Indeed, those three fillies have shown erratic form.

Alozaina won a first-condition allowance race in June but is winless in her last four starts. She was lucky not to fall in her last race, a fifth-place finish at Santa Anita on Oct. 22.

Alozaina was in traffic on the final turn when jockey Corey Nakatani tried to weave his way through traffic. In early stretch, Alozaina clipped heels, regained her balance, and then closed ground in the final furlong to finish fifth.

The form of that race has held up. Third-place finisher Continental Lu returned to win an allowance race last Saturday at Hollywood Park.

Nakatani rides Alozaina on Wednesday.