Catalano looking forward to 2019 with pair of talented fillies

The 2-year-old filly Liora didn’t run especially fast in her most recent start, but she ran fast enough to score a narrow victory in the Grade 2 Golden Rod Stakes, Churchill Downs’s most important 2-year-old filly race of the year outside the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies this season.

Liora has taken up residence in the Fair Grounds barn of trainer Wayne Catalano, but Catalano is in no hurry to get her back to the races. After the calendar flips to 2019, Fair Grounds has a three-race series for 3-year-old fillies racing two turns on dirt, and Catalano said Liora will be aimed at the second, the Rachel Alexandra in February.

“You can’t run in all three of them, right?” Catalano said.

Liora, who upset favored Restless Rider in the Golden Rod, is in steady training, but Catalano said he won’t start getting more serious with her until January.

Nov. 29 at Fair Grounds, Catalano unveiled the 2-year-old turf filly Winter Sunset who looked at least as talented as Liora. Winter Sunset debuted in a 7 1/2-furlong maiden turf race. She went straight to the lead and never was threatened, strolling under the wire more than four lengths clear of the runner-up. She got a 71 Beyer Speed Figure, an encouraging debut number for a grass horse her age.

It wasn’t just the manner of victory but the names in Winter Sunset’s pedigree that caught the eye. She’s by the great sire Tapit and is the first foal to race out of the top-class grass mare Winter Memories. Winter Sunset, Catalano said, was ready to debut during the Churchill meet, but one thing led to another and, in the end, she didn’t get a chance to start.

“We couldn’t wait to get her on the grass, and she is what we thought she was,” Catalano said. “She had some quirks and kinks we had to iron out, but we took care of them.”

Winter Sunset “would stop and do silly stuff” during training, Catalano said, and debuted wearing screen blinkers. She raced professionally enough last week but now might have to take her show on the road, perhaps to Florida, if, as Catalano suggests is likely, Winter Sunset runs back in a stakes race.