Charles Town: Silver Heart back at favorite track for allowance

After four consecutive starts at Charles Town in which she was the odds-on favorite, Silver Heart’s odds soared to 45-1 when she was ambitiously spotted in the Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie Handicap at her home track, Laurel Park. A West Virginia-bred 7-year-old mare, Silver Heart is back at a more comfortable level and setting for Charles Town’s featured $31,000 allowance Tuesday night.

Silver Heart, who has recorded 11 of her 12 lifetime victories over Charles Town’s bullring, figures to be a short price as usual when she faces six other fillies and mares going 6 1/2 furlongs in a race open to nonwinners of two non-claiming races in the past four months or nonwinners of four lifetime.

Based at Laurel with trainer Gary Capuano, Silver Heart is eligible because the biggest win of her career, in the $225,000 West Virginia Cavada, came in October, a month prior to the Nov. 13 cut-off date for Tuesday’s race. She defeated similar competition to what she faces Tuesday night going seven furlongs in mid-January.

Bahia Beach, a sharp locally based 4-year-old filly, looms as Silver Heart’s chief challenger. Bahia Beach, trained by Jeff Runco, gets in seven pounds lighter than 119-pound highweight Silver Heart, thanks to the five-pound allowance given to apprentice Matt Seifers. Seifers was aboard for back-to-back victories by Bahia Beach in November and December.

Most recently, Bahia Beach managed to finish second, despite lunging coming out of the gate, in the 1 1/16-mile Affectionately at Aqueduct on Jan. 28.

Among the remainder of the field, the 7-year-old Shefoggedmyglasses is often close, with 30 second- and third-place finishes, but her 2-for-53 record makes her difficult to support as a win candidate.

Alamanda Drive could be dangerous if she gets loose on the lead while making her first start in nearly two months. She wired first-level allowance runners Dec. 1, but flashed speed and stopped badly in two subsequent starts, finishing far back of Bahia Beach on Dec. 16 and well behind Silver Heart a month later.

Omara Devil cuts back in distance and will be reunited with leading jockey J.D. Acosta when she ships in from Maryland for trainer Chris Grove. The 5-year-old Omara Devil has been no worse than third in 7 of 9 starts at Charles Town, including an allowance win with Acosta aboard way back in December 2010.