Cozze Up Lady seeks repeat in Chicago Handicap

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Ten fillies and mares, including defending champion Cozze Up Lady, were entered Wednesday for Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Chicago Handicap, a seven-furlong Polytrack race.

The field, in post position order, consists of Fire Tricks, My Option, Cozze Up Lady, Allanah, Apropos, Flower Spell, Queen’s Award, Eden Prairie, Chortle, and Disco Barbie. Apropos is the starting highweight at 120 pounds, but there is only a six-pound weight spread from top to bottom.

Cozze Up Lady won the 2013 Chicago Handicap by three-quarters of a length despite not being at her physical best at the time, according to trainer Bret Calhoun. Taken out of action for several months after the win, Cozze Up Lady’s comeback race, a dramatic, deep-closing win in the March 4 Mardi Gras Stakes at Fair Grounds, was highly encouraging, but she has failed to progress in two subsequent starts, finishing sixth in the Grade 1 Madison at Keeneland, a race, like Saturday’s, over seven furlongs on Polytrack, and most recently checking in an even fourth on Churchill dirt in the May 26 Winning Colors.

Eden Prairie also contested the Madison, and it was surprising to see a filly who typically stalks the pace in sprint races dueling on the lead. Eden Prairie stayed competitive until the final furlong before fading to fifth. Finishing two places ahead of Eden Prairie in the Madison was Apropos, a Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider homebred with an affinity for seven-furlong races and solid Polytrack performances in her only two tries.

Disco Barbie, an East Coast shipper for trainer Dale Capuano, showed a touch of quality while racing on dirt in 2012 and 2013, but her form leapt far forward when she was switched to synthetic-surface racing two starts ago over Presque Isle Downs’s Tapeta Footings surface. There, Disco Barbie has won consecutive allowance races by more than 15 lengths combined, and she will be formidable if she ships well and her Tapeta form transfers to Polytrack.

My Option finished just behind Eden Prairie in the Grade 2 Raven Run last fall at Keeneland but has yet to find her best form after two starts this year.