Dogwood Stakes marks return of top 3-year-old filly Farrell

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Thousands of fans will be here just to party. Thousands more will be here for the same reason they always are – to cash tickets and hopefully make some money.

And for select individuals such as trainer Wayne Catalano, Saturday night at Churchill Downs brings a more specific purpose. Catalano will be up later than normal, looking to get his stable star Farrell back to her winning ways when she makes an eagerly awaited return to action in the $100,000 Dogwood Stakes.

“We’re happy to have her back,” Catalano said. “She’s a very nice filly who’s run some big races.”

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A capacity field of 14 3-year-old fillies is entered in the 42nd running of the Dogwood, a seven-furlong race that highlights the final Downs After Dark card of the year at Churchill. First post is 6 p.m. Eastern, with the Dogwood set for 10:11 as the ninth of 11 races.

Farrell, owned by the Coffeepot Stables of Bob Cummings and Annette Bacola, was poised to become the leader of the 3-year-old filly division halfway through the May 5 Kentucky Oaks. Down the backstretch, sitting a perfect third behind dueling leaders while clear of all the rest, Farrell had every opportunity to do what she had done in her four previous starts, all stakes – roll on to victory.

But it all came unraveled. Jockey Channing Hill was suddenly out of horse midway through the turn, and Farrell wound up being virtually eased when finishing last of 14.

“It was disappointing,” Catalano recalled. “All we can think is she didn’t care for the sloppy track. We sent her out for a once-over just to make sure nothing major was wrong. She was a little tired – she’d done so much up to then. After that, she got about 30 days at the farm before we brought her back and got her going again.”

Dating to late July at the Saratoga training track, Farrell has had seven workouts in preparing for her first race in more than four months. Although the Grade 2 Raven Run on Oct. 21 at Keeneland is a natural next target for the top finishers in the Dogwood, Catalano isn’t making any next-race plans yet.

“First, we’ve got to run here and see how everything goes,” he said. “This is a good spot for us. She just has to walk out of her stall and go right over there and run. We’re hoping for the best.”

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Farrell, with Hill back to ride, was assigned post 8 in the Dogwood, although she might be sliding down at least one gate. One of her chief would-be threats, Tequilita (post 3), is cross-entered for Saturday night in the Grade 3, $300,000 Charles Town Oaks in West Virginia, and trainer Michael Matz said Thursday he was leaning toward running the filly there instead of making the longer ship to Kentucky from his Maryland base.

With the likely defection of Tequilita, it’s unclear who will settle in as the second wagering choice behind Farrell.

Student Body owns a field-high 94 Beyer Speed Figure from an allowance romp at Ellis Park in mid-July. My Sweet Stella was a sharp two-turn allowance winner at the Churchill spring meet for Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas and had a useful tightener at Saratoga in the interim. Covenant splashed to an eye-catching maiden win at Saratoga and has plenty of upside for owner-breeder WinStar Farm.

Other possibilities in a deep renewal of the Dogwood, a former longtime spring-meet fixture, include Jordan’s Henny, a Kentucky Oaks also-ran with several solid efforts on her résumé; No More Babies, likely to flash big early foot on a stretchout; Minnie Blip, exiting a rugged renewal of the Grade 1 Test; and Champagne Problems, a late-running possibility in a race with speed aplenty.

Student Body bounced out of a fifth-place finish in the Grade 2 Prioress at Saratoga in terrific shape, trainer Chris Davis said.

“She’s naturally fast, and when she’s on her game, she doesn’t stop,” Davis said. “She’s going to run her race, I think.”

The Dogwood is the last race in the Single 6 sequence (races 4-9) and also is part of several other multi-race wagers. Three pick five wagers are available (races 2-6, 5-9, 7-11), as well as three pick fours (races 1-4, 6-9, 8-11).

The Dogwood will be directly followed by the $100,000 President of the United Arab Emirates Cup (race 10), a Grade 1 race for Arabians. Two of the top Arabians in training, Paddys Day and Easter Man, are among a field of nine in the 1 1/16-mile UAE Cup.

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This is the 44th Downs After Dark program at Churchill, where the first such card was held in June 2009. Live music and other ontrack activities unfailingly attract a far younger demographic through the gates than the daytime cards. General admission is $10.

On this comparable date last year, attendance was 16,768, with $745,115 bet ontrack as part of an all-sources handle of $3.6 million.

The local forecast calls for dry and unseasonably warm conditions, with a daytime high of 90 becoming cooler as the night unfolds.