Change of Control looks tough in turf sprint feature

Change of Control cleared her first allowance condition scoring a 36-1 upset last May in the $98,000 Mamzelle Stakes at Churchill. She stands a good chance of getting through her second allowance condition in the featured eighth race Sunday at Fair Grounds.

Change of Control, a 3-year-old filly trained by Michelle Lovell, was making her turf debut in the Mamzelle, which accounts for her long odds in the race. Since that start, she finished second to pacesetting Karama racing over a speed-favoring Laurel Park grass course in the $100,000 Stormy Blues Stakes in July; was fifth over a Parx Racing turf course rated good in a subpar performance Sept. 21 in the Turf Amazon Stakes; and most recently finished a strong-closing second of 12, beaten only by the good Wesley Ward-trained filly Stillwater Cove, when finally back into an allowance race about two months ago at Keeneland.

Her start Sunday comes in race carded for about 5 1/2 furlongs on grass and open to second-level allowance starters or $40,000 claimers. Other capable horses are entered, but even at something like her 5-2 morning-line odds, Change of Control looks fairly solid.

Libby Knows and Lake Local hold some appeal at longer prices than the likely favorite. Libby Knows won turf sprinting at Fair Grounds last season in her career debut and can do much better than a 10th-place finish in the same Keeneland allowance race contested by Change of Control. Lake Local also won her debut last season at Fair Grounds in a turf sprint, returned from a long layoff to capture a first-level allowance race at Monmouth making another sprint start in September, and probably just failed to stay two turns when stretched to a two-turn mile last out at Keeneland.