Boyce has formidable pair for Illini Princess

Trainer Michele Boyce – who also has a hand in breeding and owning – spent decades in a relationship with Illinois racing. This year, Illinois racing essentially threw Boyce out of the house.

When Churchill Downs Inc. closed Arlington Park for 2022, local horsepeople like Boyce had to find somewhere to stable when Hawthorne’s spring meet ended in June and Thoroughbred racing ended in Chicago for the summer. Boyce took stalls at Horseshoe Indianapolis. Fine, but that didn’t do much for her capable Illinois-bred horses.

Now, Hawthorne has reopened for a fall-winter meet, good news for Boyce, who has two key players for the $75,000 Illini Princess, a 1 1/16-mile grass race Saturday for Illinois-bred fillies and mares. Boyce’s pair of Cat Attack and Katie M’lady know each other well, and not just from shed-row gossip. As 3-year-olds last year, the pair faced each other twice, Katie M’lady looking like the superior filly. But Cat Attack has a recent Hawthorne allowance win coming into the Illini Princess, while Katie M’lady hasn’t started since she was second about a year ago in the 2021 renewal of this race.

Still – advantage Katie M’lady. Boyce’s stable historically has excelled with long layoff comebackers, and Katie M’lady has a sparkling 4-2-0 record from her six grass starts. By Dominus, Katie M’lady is out Katie the Lady, who won the Illini Princess for Boyce during her racing career. Katie the Lady was produced by Kate the Great, a Boyce-trained Illinois-bred turf-stakes mare during her racing career in the mid-00s.

Both Boyce runners, however, are part of a potential pace battle, and the pick to stalk the leaders, run them down, and win is Trail Ridge Road. Lightly raced, with just three starts, 3-year-old Trail Ridge Road also has deep Illinois roots, a daughter of Point of Entry and Summerlin bred by Team Block and trained by Chris Block. Summerlin, who was unraced, is out of Fort Pond, a very good Block broodmare who produced multiple stakes winners, including the sire Fort Prado.

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Trail Ridge Road moved sharply on the far turn to win her debut over the Hawthorne course this past spring, beating turf-route maidens by more than five lengths. She ran into a sharp Kentucky shipper, Stylish Whispa, finishing second at Colonial Downs in a first-level allowance race going one mile on Aug. 10, and simply didn’t seem to quite stay 1 3/16 miles when a creditable fourth at the same level in a Sept. 6 Colonial contest won by the talented Godolphin homebred Soft Touch. Trail Ridge Road should get a favorable trip Saturday under Orlando Mojica – take the Block-trained Illinois-bred stalker to run down the Boyce-trained Illinois-bred speedsters.

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