Coastalota back in JEH defense

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Coastalota, the state's champion older female last year, will meet the undefeated Dazed for the first time Saturday in the $50,000 JEH Stallion Station Stakes at Lone Star Park.

The 6 1/2-furlong race is restricted to fillies and mares bred in Texas.

Coastalota has not raced since she finished third to Grade 1 winner Take Charge Lady in the Great State Challenge Distaff on Dec. 7.

"We were prepping for another stakes after that, and she had a spider bite her," said Randy Mayfield, who trains Coastalota.

Coastalota's left hock became swollen and infected as a result of the bite, and she was given 45 days off from training. She has come back fine.

"She's been back training for a while," said Mayfield. "We've given her quite a bit of time to leg up."

Coastalota won the JEH last year by a length after rallying from well off the pace, and she could run the same kind of race Saturday.

"Looking at the past performances, it looks like there's a lot of speed in the race," said Mayfield. "Maybe we can just sit back there and make one run at them."

E.J. Perrodin will pick up the mount from Bobby Walker Jr., who is now based at Canterbury Park, which opened Friday.

The JEH should serve as Coastalota's springboard to the $100,000 Allen Bogan Memorial at a mile on June 28. She won the race last year, one start after the JEH. Coastalota, a winner of $298,598, races for her breeder, Hubert Southard.

The quick Dazed has won her three career starts by a combined 14 lengths, with two of those races coming at the 6 1/2-furlong distance of the JEH. She won her debut at the trip Jan. 24, then came back and beat open company by more than seven lengths March 6.

In her most recent start, Dazed won an allowance for statebreds by three lengths April 24. She overcame a slow start, and the fact that she did not panic and rush up to the lead impressed her trainer, Danny Pish.