Amoss hopes Kimchi Cat handles shift to grass in Pea Patch
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Vodka With a Twist and Kimchi Cat both have proven stakes form, but they are trying turf for the first time in Sunday’s $150,000 Pea Patch Stakes, a sprint for 3-year-old fillies at Ellis Park. One would question the value of taking a short price on them. Meanwhile, some in this field with turf wins lack stakes form or recency, which perhaps makes the pair an overlay in this group.
Vodka With a Twist has been admirably consistent throughout her career, with a record of 9-2-4-2, all on dirt, and earning nearly $750,000. A stakes-winning sprinter last year, she was multiple graded stakes-placed around two turns before cutting back to one turn last out, finishing second after leading early in the seven-furlong Leslie’s Lady at Churchill Downs. She cuts back even more here while switching surfaces.
Vodka With a Twist is from the first crop of Thousand Words, whose best progeny to date have performed on dirt. None of her four winning half-siblings have won on turf or synthetic, and the family boasts dirt stakes ability.
Pedigree factors are kinder to Kimchi Cat, a daughter of the versatile Twirling Candy. His multiple stakes-winning turf sprinters include Ag Bullet, winner of this year’s Grade 1 Japiur. There are both dirt and turf stakes performers in the female family.
“I’ve worked her on the grass more than once at Churchill Downs,” trainer Tom Amoss said. “I think it’s still a bit of a mystery how she is on turf, but it’s worth a try with that pedigree.”
Kimchi Cat won last year’s off-the-turf Bolton Landing and this year’s Purple Martin at Oaklawn. Most recently, she was 11th in the Grade 2 Eight Belles.
Lovely Emma and Rich City Girl both make their second starts of 2025, which should have them sharper here. Lovely Emma, another daughter of Twirling Candy, won her maiden last December on the Fair Grounds turf. In her only start since, she had the tall order of stepping up to stakes company off the layoff, finishing ninth in the Take the A Train at Aqueduct.
Rich City Girl won a restricted allowance on the Kentucky Downs turf last August, but she’s competed on dirt since. In her first start since October, she won the Goldfinch sprinting on the Prairie Meadows dirt. The daughter of City of Light is out of an Irish-born War Front mare.
Hold Your Breath was well beaten in her stakes debut on the dirt, which perhaps accounts for her being a bit overlooked on the morning line despite coming off a front-running allowance win on the Saratoga turf. As she did that day, she will again have to break running from the rail in a big field.
Brindi has most recently won back-to-back stakes on Woodbine’s synthetic main track, while Pondering is coming off a turf sprint win at Horseshoe Indianapolis – perhaps against lesser company, but with a Beyer Speed Figure that stacks up well in this field.
– additional reporting by Marcus Hersh
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