Into Amore brings improving Beyers into allowance route
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LEXINGTON, Ky. – A pair of allowance events offering six-figure purses for fillies and mares – one routing on dirt and one sprinting on turf – are the nominal features on Thursday’s nine-race card at Keeneland.
The first one to come up in the program is the seventh race, a $120,000 allowance at 1 1/16 miles on dirt for fillies and mares 4 years old and up who have never won a race other-than or who have never won two races. The race is well matched at the top as Sudden Switch and Crazy Cami both earned Beyer Speed Figures of 78 in their last starts and Into Amore earned a 77.
Into Amore may be poised to take a step forward as she has improved her numbers in each start thus far for breeder China Horse Club and trainer Todd Pletcher while never finishing worse than second. The daughter of leading sire Into Mischief and out of Grade 1 winner Embellish the Lace won her debut in December at Tampa, then finished second in a pair of allowance/optional-claiming races.
Sudden Switch is making just her second start. She won her debut around two turns in January for trainer Chad Brown. Striking while the iron was hot, she then was sold in a Fasig-Tipton digital sale and now starts for Riley Mott.
Crazy Cami has finished third in three straight allowance races at Oaklawn for trainer Mike Maker.
Turning the page, the eighth race – a $130,000 allowance – is carded at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf for fillies and mares 4 years old and up who have never won $18,000 twice other-than or who have never won three races. There is a chance the turf course could be in use the latter half of the week, after flooding rains last week in Kentucky left the course waterlogged and turf races were moved to main track on Sunday.
The turf sprint gets international flavor from a number of entrants, including South African-bred Golden Hostess, who gets class relief and is perhaps cutting back to a more preferred distance. After finishing a close third in her U.S. debut to two next-out winners, she finished second in the Autumn Days sprinting and then 10th in the Grade 3 Suwannee River at a mile.
It may become more common to see South African-bred runners at Kentucky tracks in the future, as last year changing export regulations began to make it less strenuous to ship horses from South Africa to other jurisdictions. Graham Motion, who trains Golden Hostess, has familiarity with adapting these horses to U.S. racing. He trains South African-bred Beach Bomb, a multiple graded stakes winner in the United States, and Isivunguvungu, a stakes winner last summer at Colonial.
Ultimate Ready has won both her starts, although with a year between them – in February 2024 and February 2025. It looks like she is ready to keep rolling for trainer Bill Mott, with a bullet work at Payson Park before shipping out.
Foxxy Cleopatra was last seen finishing seventh in the off-the-turf Limestone in April 2024 at Keeneland. She has run well off a layoff before for trainer Larry Rivelli, winning her first career start in June 2023 and her second in February 2024.
Crown Imperial, a stakes winner on turf and stakes-placed on dirt, makes her first start since August for John Ortiz.
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