Candid Cathy at best distance in Satin and Lace

It took some time to find Candid Cathy’s niche.

The mare, co-bred, owned, and trained by Hall of Famer Jonathan Sheppard, began her career running flat races on the turf, then tried steeplechasing, without success.

After about a year’s freshening, Sheppard sent the mare to Presque Isle Downs and cut her back in distance on the all-weather track. The result was a vastly improved horse: Candid Cathy has won six of seven starts sprinting at the track. The 7-year-old Pennsylvania-bred now gets a chance at black type in the $100,000 Satin and Lace Stakes on Sunday evening.

Candid Cathy’s only loss at Presque Isle came when second by a head in a six-furlong allowance last summer; she is perfect at the 5 1/2-furlong distance of Sunday’s race. The mare is making her first start in a stakes but has faced quality competition in her most recent outings at Presque Isle.

She concluded her productive 2016 campaign with a 1 3/4-length allowance win over stakes winner Come to Mischief. She was off for more than seven months before picking up this season where she left off, winning another allowance by two lengths over Grade 1 winner Birdatthewire, with Unbridled Courage, also back for the Satin and Lace, in third.

The lukewarm favorites in the overflow field for the Satin and Lace are Pretty Perfection, trained by Kelly Breen, and Marquee Cal Gal, who ships in for Phil Sims. Pretty Perfection won three straight earlier this year at Gulfstream Park, including the Ladies’ Turf Sprint and the Captiva Island Stakes. However, she then finished eighth in the Giant’s Causeway at Keeneland and fourth in The Very One at Pimlico, although she was beaten just a nose for third by Elusive Joni, whom she faces again Sunday, as just more than a length covered the top four.

Stakes-placed Marquee Cal Gal, drawn in the outside post, has won seven of nine starts at Presque Isle. She has opened this season with two victories, taking an optional claimer at Turfway Park and a starter optional-claiming race at Presque Isle.

The multiple stakes winner Disco Chick sports the biggest bankroll in the field at $693,050 but hasn’t won since last June. She has placed in nine stakes since then, including a third in the Grade 2 Honorable Miss last summer at Saratoga behind Eclipse Award finalists Haveyougoneaway and Paulassilverlining, but finished seventh in the Skipat Stakes at Pimlico last out.

The field also includes the graded-placed stakes winners Blip n’ Th Bye and Marquee Miss as well as stakes-placed runners Natural Wonder and Kalabaka.