Alpine Princess and Band of Gold already hold points toward a spot in the 150th Kentucky Oaks in six weeks at Churchill Downs. The pair comes to Turfway Park for a matchup with impressive local stakes winner Maxisuperfly, who is seeking to essentially clinch a berth in the Oaks starting gate in Saturday’s $300,000 Bourbonette Oaks. The Bourbonette, at 1 1/16 miles on the Tapeta, awards points toward the Oaks on a 50-25-15-10-5 scale. Band of Gold currently has 21 points, while Alpine Princess has 20; the cutoff to make the 14-horse field last year was 48 points. While the Bourbonette has been won in Turfway’s synthetic era by top-level fillies such as Sealy Hill (2007), Summer Soiree (2011), and In Lingerie (2012), it has not had the impact on the Kentucky Oaks that its brother race, the Jeff Ruby, has had on the Kentucky Derby in recent years. The last two winners of the filly prep, Candy Raid (2022) and Botanical (2023), were ninth and 13th, respectively, in the Kentucky Oaks. Still, Alpine Princess and Band of Gold both have solid dirt form that would fit in the filly classic – if they can first transfer their form to Tapeta. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. Alpine Princess, who has faced strong company, may have the best makeup to do so. The filly, trained by Brad Cox, was a front-running winner of the Untapable Stakes at Fair Grounds; runner-up West Omaha came back to win the Silverbulletday Stakes in that series. Alpine Princess then finished fourth on a sloppy, sealed track there in the Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra Stakes. The top two finishers in that race, Tarifa and Intricate, are considered leading Kentucky Oaks candidates and run back in the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks less than a half-hour after the Bourbonette. Alpine Princess’s dam is a half-sister to turf stakes winner Another Miracle. Their dam, Retraceable, was a synthetic stakes winner. Band of Gold, fifth in the Untapable after a rough start, won the Martha Washington Stakes at Oaklawn before finishing sixth there in the Grade 3 Honeybee Stakes. She is trained by Kenny McPeek, who also has entered a filly with established Tapeta form – Winnable, who cleared off impressively to win her debut last month at Turfway, going a mile. Maxisuperfly has not missed the board in four starts going a mile at Turfway for trainer Eric Foster, with two front-running wins. That includes the Cincinnati Trophy last time out, as she was always in unchallenged control of the race and coasted home. She is drawn well in post 4 but can expect some pace pressure this time, chiefly from Pink Polkadots on her outside. That filly, making her stakes debut, has not been headed while winning her first two career starts going two turns on the Fair Grounds turf. Alpine Princess also has shown speed, but may not send hard from the rail. The undercard for the classic prep races includes both route and sprint options for 3-year-olds, in the $250,000 Rushaway Stakes and $250,000 Animal Kingdom Stakes, respectively. The picture for the Rushaway has opened up with the early scratches of the promising Tennessee, who was the favorite on the morning line, along with second choice Blue Eyed George, who will instead run at Fair Grounds. From those remaining in the field, a number appear to want to be forwardly-placed, including Neat, last-out winner of the Texas Turf Mile, as well as the likes of Trikari and Twirling Point. Rallying into that pace could be Two Ghosts, who in his most recent start on synthetic won the Grade 3 Grey Stakes at Woodbine. His outside post position shouldn’t hinder him, as he can drop back and save ground. The six-furlong Animal Kingdom brings in Valentine Candy, a talented multiple stakes winner making a surface switch. Valentine Candy, who has Frankie Dettori named to ride for Steve Asmussen, has won three straight stakes sprinting on dirt at Oaklawn Park – the Advent, the Renaissance, and the Ozark. The colt is by the multi-surface sensation Justify, and his dam, Taste Like Candy, was Grade 1-placed on synthetic. There is a good amount of speed in the race, which suits other standouts in this field, Vote No and Shards. Vote No, who is cutting back to a preferred distance, has the advantage of local experience for William Morey. He made a late run to win the Turfway Prevue before finishing fifth while leading early in the one-mile Leonatus Stakes. Late-runner Shards faced stiff competition all last year for trainer Kelsey Danner, finishing third by a neck in the Indian Summer Stakes before running fifth, beaten just more than two lengths, in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.