Cobra Lady fastest in field

Cobra Lady, the fastest female sprinter on the grounds this season at Mountaineer Race Track, will seek to repel a pair of Kentucky-based challengers and a locally based filly making a rare try in a race shorter than one mile in Tuesday night's $75,000 New Year's Eve Stakes.

The six-furlong sprint drew 12 fillies and mares, including two coupled entries, and a pair of also-eligibles.

A 5-year-old trained by J. Michael Baird, Cobra Lady has won 6 of 10 starts this year, including three stakes. Ten of her 15 career victories have come over Mountaineer's main track.

In her most recent start, Cobra Lady wired a group of female sprinters racing under allowance conditions with a 90 Beyer Speed Figure.

Angel Trumpet, part of an entry for trainer Bernie Flint, and Dewey's Trick, both shipping in following sharp efforts in Kentucky, are Cobra Lady's chief challengers.

Six weeks ago, Angel Trumpet won a five-furlong overnight stakes on turf at Churchill Downs. In her only previous race at Mountaineer this season, the 3-year-old Angel Trumpet finished second as the even-money favorite in an allowance, but earned a 92 Beyer.

Dewey's Trick, making her first start since being transferred to John Good's barn, set the pace and settled for second in the Holiday Inaugural Stakes over Turfway Park's Polytrack earlier this month. Three of her four lifetime wins, however, have come on the grass.

In a similar vein, most of Beau Watch's success has come either on turf, where she is 2 for 6, or over wet surfaces, where she is 3 for 4 lifetime.

Although Beau Watch, who comes from the high-percentage barn of Eric Reed, was good enough to win a small stakes on the main track at Prairie Meadows in September and finish second in a turf stakes at Mountaineer in May, nearly all her races have been at a mile or longer. In contrast to the 95 Beyer she earned going 1 1/16 miles at Prairie Meadows, the best figure Beau Watch has earned sprinting on dirt is a 65.

If somebody is willing to get into a wicked speed duel with Cobra Lady, it could provide an ideal set-up for Baldomera. Based at Philadelphia Park with trainer Lupe Preciado, Baldomera has faced some classy company this season, finishing third in the Grade 3 Floral Park Handicap at Belmont and fourth in the Grade 2 Vagrancy Handicap, also at Belmont. Her lone win in nine starts this year came in August in optional claiming company at Delaware Park.