Bluelightspecial, Corningstone to clash again in First Lady
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The Indiana-bred dirt route 3-year-old fillies so far this season have been much faster than the Indiana-bred dirt route colts and geldings. That’s not an indictment of the colts and geldings so much as a credit to the fillies.
Bluelightspecial and Corningstone have recorded Beyer Speed Figures this summer fast enough to contend in graded-stakes races, and they meet for the sixth time Wednesday at Horseshoe Indianapolis in the $200,000 First Lady Stakes. The First Lady, for Indiana-bred fillies, is carded as race 8 (post time 6:23 Eastern) with the $200,000 Governor’s, for Indiana-bred 3-year-olds, immediately following.
Horseshoe Indianapolis is back with a bang after taking last week off, a midsummer respite during a six-month race meeting. Full, competitive fields abound on a 10-race program Wednesday.
The First Lady has a full field, with a dozen horses in the main body and two more also-eligibles, but it almost certainly is a two-horse race. Bluelightspecial is the morning-line favorite at 8-5, but Corningstone, 5-2 on the line, is the pick.
Trained and co-owned by Cipriano Contreras, Bluelightspecial has been racing without much of a break since her career debut more than a year ago, but the demanding schedule appears only to have made her stronger. By Super Saver, Bluelightspecial has continued improving since being stretched out to two-turn racing, coming into the First Lady on a three-race winning streak. In her most recent start, the Hoosier Breeders’ Sophomore on June 21, Bluelightspecial beat Corningstone by more than three lengths, earning an 88 Beyer, a top-15 number in North America this year among sophomore fillies racing between one mile and 1 1/4 miles on dirt. The Chad Brown-trained filly Occult, for instance, got an 87 Beyer romping in the Grade 3 Monmouth Oaks this past Saturday.
Bluelightspecial has been running fast but doing so under favorable circumstances, making an easy lead on a modest to slow pace in her two most recent starts. That is not going to happen Wednesday, with plenty of pace signed on to the First Lady. Bluelightspecial can adapt to a pressing or stalking trip, but the race flow should help Corninstone turn the tables.
Corningstone, a Kantharos filly trained by Kenny McPeek, has been losing to Bluelightspecial all year mainly because she lacks her rival’s positional pace. When they faced off in the Hoosier Breeders’ Sophomore, Corningstone rallied from seventh, finishing more than 23 lengths in front of the third-place horse, while unable to reel in Bluelightspecial. On July 8, when the Ellens Lucky Star was rained off turf onto dirt, Corningstone had more pace at which to run and won by 11 1/2 lengths. And with a similar pace scenario last fall, she beat Bluelightspecial by more than four lengths in the Miss Indiana.
Run Away Rojo and King Ice are the principals in the Governor’s, which drew 12 entrants. Run Away Rojo has post 1, just as he did June 21, when he held on by a head to beat King Ice in the Hoosier Breeders’ Sophomore Stakes over one mile and 70 yards. King Ice is the more accomplished horse between the two but is a one-run closer who has less room for improvement Wednesday than Run Away Rojo, who was making just his second two-turn start in the Hoosier Breeders’ Sophomore. While King Ice returned July 8 to win the off-turf Snack Stakes, Run Away Rojo has been working steadily (and fast on July 25) at trainer Dallas Stewart’s Churchill Downs base.
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