Colonial Downs launches meet with four stakes

A Grade 2 winner in a heavily restricted stakes race should, in a vacuum, be hard to beat. But if that horse is trying something new and is going to be a short price, he might be worth trying to beat.

So it goes with Chess Chief, who runs Monday in the Bert Allen, one of four $100,000 stakes on the first card of the 15-day Colonial Downs meeting.

Colonial, historically an evening track, has moved first post this season to 1:45 p.m. Racing is conducted Monday through Wednesday, and if the first card of the season is any indication, the handicapping will be worth your time. All nine flat races (the card ends with a pair of steeplechase contests) have large, substantive fields, with horses coming from venues all over the East Coast and from several Midwest venues.

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Monday’s stakes races are termed “Virginia-restricted.” To be eligible, horses must have been bred in Virginia, been sired by a Virginia-based stallion, or have been stabled in Virginia for six consecutive months before Dec. 31 of their 2-year-old year.

Chess Chief is a Virginia-bred by Into Mischief who after years away only returned to his native state earlier this month. Trained by Dallas Stewart – one of several Kentucky outfits that have taken stalls at Colonial for the first time, owing to the closure of the Churchill Downs barn area – 5-year-old Chess Chief long has been a useful dirt-route horse. He has earned just shy of $700,000, thanks in great part to his narrow win in a substandard renewal of the New Orleans at Fair Grounds earlier this year. But the Bert Allen is run at 1 1/16 miles on turf, and Chess Chief never has run on grass. Stewart gave the horse a grass drill after shipping to Colonial, but Chess Chief races with the grinding, strong-galloping style typically associated with dirt runners and might struggle to adapt to turf racing.

Reconvene looks like a decent play in the Bert Allen. Reconvene never has raced on anything other than grass, and after beginning his career during April 2020 in the maiden-claiming ranks, he had become a competitive turf-stakes runner by season’s end. His performances in the James Murphy Stakes at Pimlico and the Bryan Station at Keeneland last fall fit this spot, and Reconvene seems set to take a step forward after shaking off long-layoff rust June 11 in a second-level Monmouth turf allowance.

The Bert Allen goes as race 4, and with seven entrants has by far the shortest field of the Monday stakes.

The Nellie Mae Cox, race 3, is for fillies and mares going a mile on turf and drew 11 entrants. Urban Fairytale and Tasting the Stars figure to be much shorter prices than any of the other nine, and Urban Fairytale probably holds an edge Monday.

Tasting the Stars clearly is the most talented horse in this race, but her career peak came two summers ago, and after a sixth-place finish in the 2019 Virginia Oaks, she didn’t start for more than a year. A two-race 2020 campaign was followed by a trainer change from Michael Stidham to John Kimmel, and on Monday, Tasting the Stars is back from a nine-month break.

Urban Fairytale, trained by Ian Wilkes, has never hit a peak as high as Tasting the Stars’s, but she comes off a third-place finish June 23 in the $100,000 Lady Canterbury Stakes.

Grateful Bred, 12-1 on the morning line, is the selection in the Meadow Stables, a 5 1/2-furlong turf sprint for 3-year-olds and up with several win candidates. Grateful Bred, who figures to be a shorter price than his morning-line odds, is a lightly raced 5-year-old who has done little wrong in five turf-sprint starts and began his 2021 season with a strong performance winning a restricted turf-sprint allowance last month at Pimlico. Also entered is Boldor, who won a turf sprint at Colonial two seasons ago and turned in strong showings in Kentucky and Maryland earlier this year. But Boldor comes off a baffling run in the Get Serious Stakes at Monmouth, where he never came close to reaching contention and was beaten nearly 12 lengths.

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Prolific winner Street Lute is set to try turf for the first time in the M. Tyson Gilpin, a 5 1/2-furlong grass sprint for fillies and mares that caps the stakes action Monday. Street Lute, a Maryland-based 3-year-old trained by Jerry Robb, has eight wins from 11 career starts but has never run on turf. After a sixth-place finish in the Miss Preakness Stakes, she won the off-turf Stormy Blues at Pimlico in her last start. Street Lute is no sure thing to handle grass.

The New York-based Screamin’ By improved with blinkers added last out, and her good grass-sprint form has come at distances longer than this 5 1/2-furlong trip.

Rail-drawn Proper Attire should offer double-digit win odds, and her only grass try came at a two-turn trip she couldn’t handle. She’s a very fast filly with some turf in her pedigree, and if she can make a clear lead and relax, she might prove uncatchable in her first one-turn grass race.