Distance a question for top two

On paper, the top betting choices for the Tiffany Lass Stakes on Saturday at Fair Grounds look like Get Ready Bertie and Pro Pink. But at one mile, with a finish at the normal sixteenth pole, the race might be a touch too short for Get Ready Bertie, a little too far for Pro Pink. And if distance is an issue for either, the alternatives are many, with 10 others entered in this $100,000 stakes, a prep for the Silverbulletday, itself a prep for the Fair Grounds Oaks.

Get Ready Bertie could easily get bet down to heavy favoritism since she shows a second-place finish last out in the Grade 2 Demoiselle at Aqueduct, and has Robby Albarado - nationally, the best-known jockey at Fair Grounds - named to ride.

Owned by Richard Klein, Get Ready Bertie resides in the barn of trainer Steve Flint, who also has the promising 3-year-old filly Change Up stationed at Fair Grounds. Change Up is breezing steadily, readying for the Silverbulletday, and if both fillies pan out in coming weeks, Get Ready Bertie could wind up racing at Gulfstream Park. Why? Because Gulfstream has 1 1/8-mile stakes for 3-year-old fillies, and added distance might be her thing.

"A mile and an eighth, I think that would be good for her," Flint said earlier this week.

As a maiden, Get Ready Bertie finished third in the Ellis Park Debutante over seven furlongs in August, so she's not helpless at shorter distances. And Get Ready Bertie breezed steadily through December after arriving in New Orleans.

No recent breezes are required for Pro Pink, who just raced Jan. 1, finishing second to the good-looking Total going six furlongs in a minor stakes.

"Normally, we wouldn't come back so quick," said trainer Jamie Sanders. "But if you look, she came back in nine days after she won at Keeneland."

That short turnaround came between a debut win going 4 1/2 furlongs and a second-place finish facing males in the Grade 3 Kentucky Breeders' Cup on Mayo4 at Churchill. Off from May to September, Pro Pink has lost five races since returning to action, but her recent second-place finish was at least decent.

Jersey Bond was a sharp debut winner for trainer Scott Blasi on Dec. 3, and could start in an entry-level allowance race Sunday instead of the Tiffany Lass.