Dalika cuts back for 4-year-old debut in allowance

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The fan-less fun at Churchill Downs resumes Thursday when a pair of deep allowances and the first 2-year-old dash of the year in Kentucky will serve as highlights of a busy 10-race card.

With bettors participating off-site while the coronavirus crisis continues, all-sources handle of $26.6 million on the first two cards of the spring meet Saturday and Sunday was nearly triple what was bet on the corresponding 2019 dates.

Thursday action will be similarly alluring, as 155 entries (including also-eligibles and exclusions) were accepted by the Churchill racing office. Rain was in the local forecast for Monday through Thursday, and while both co-featured allowances are scheduled for turf, both are reinforced with also-eligible lists that should allow the races to hold together nicely in case they’re forced to the main track.

Race 7 is an $83,000 second-level race at 5 1/2 furlongs that will mark the 4-year-old debut of Dalika, assuming it remains on grass. The German-bred filly was a very sharp second in the Grade 2 Mrs. Revere here last fall before ending her season by running fourth as the favorite in the Dec. 28 Pago Hop at Fair Grounds.

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“She kind of went over the top after the Mrs. Revere, so we sent her to South Carolina for a freshening,” said Al Stall Jr., who trains Dalika for the Bal Mar Equine of Paul Varga and partners.

Stall said he is optimistic that conditions will permit the Thursday races to stay on the grass.

“I thought this would be a good spot to get started with her, given there weren’t any better options,” he said. “She pulls a little too hard in her distance races, and she had decent sprint form overseas. When they go 21-and-change here, she ought to come running after being off the bridle early.”

Dalika, with Joel Rosario to ride, is the 5-2 morning-line favorite.

The 8-5 program choice in Race 9 is Front Run the Fed, who also will be making his 4-year-old debut as part of an overflow lineup in the $85,000 third-level race, scheduled for a mile.

Front Run the Fed really came to hand last spring and summer when earning back-to-back 99 Beyer Speed Figures in New York. The Fed Biz colt posted nine works at the Palm Meadows training center, dating to mid-March, before arriving here last week from Florida.

If Race 9 is moved to the dirt, Lone Sailor becomes a major consideration off the also-eligible list. The 5-year-old horse has more than $1.27 million in earnings and a wealth of graded stakes experience.

The co-features are linked in the 20-cent Single 6 (races 5-10), which offers a carryover of $71,805 after no winning tickets were bought on a difficult sequence Sunday.

Thursday begins with the first 2-year-old race on this circuit this year. As usual, Wesley Ward looms a major presence, as he’ll send out Tequila Queen as the likely favorite in a full gate of first-timing fillies going 4 1/2 furlongs. Others sure to draw action, if only because of their trainers’ reputations with babies, are Mad Maddy for Steve Asmussen and Hopeful Princess for John Hancock.

Hancock said Hopeful Princess is “probably the best 2-year-old I’ve had in a long time.”

“If they’d run at Keeneland when they were supposed to,” he added, referring to the canceled spring meet in April, “I’d have bet my pickup truck.”

The only five-day week of the 26-day spring meet extends through Monday (Memorial Day), with first post daily being 1 p.m. Eastern.