Dyna's Lassie needs to be on best behavior in Violet

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - The headstrong Dyna's Lassie gets back to work Saturday in the Grade 3, $125,000 Violet Stakes for fillies and mares on the turf at the Meadowlands.

The Violet, at 1 1/16 miles, tops the first night card of the meet, a nine-race program that gets underway at 7 p.m. Eastern.

A 5-year-old mare, Dyna's Lassie can be a handful, as she demonstrated at Saratoga to the dismay of trainer Doug Fout. She shipped in early, spending the entire meet preparing for the Ballston Spa Stakes on Aug. 29.

The day before the race, Dyna's Lassie tossed the exercise rider, ran off, and bled. She was scratched from the stakes, concluding an unproductive trip to the Spa.

Fout gave her time off to recuperate. The Violet will be her first race since finishing third in the Grade 3 Robert G. Dick Memorial on July 18 at Delaware Park.

"She's coming up to this race great," Fout said. "Obviously, it's been a long time since she's run, but she's a tough mare, a bear to train. She'll be fit to run. It's not like she needs a race to get ready."

The Violet is a substantial distance cutback from the 1 3/8 miles of the Dick. Fout hopes the shorter distance will aid Dyna's Lassie, who is as difficult to ride as she is to train.

Dyna's Lassie has natural early speed and tends to break sharply before settling to make a late run. In the Dick, jockey David Cohen wound up in a wrestling match as Dyna's Lassie contested the pace.

"The biggest thing with this filly is that she is so tough and hard on herself," Fout said. "In Delaware, David unfortunately fought her the whole way. It was the first time he had ridden her, and she is not easy to ride."

In the shorter Violet, Fout hopes the early pace is quicker with more speed horses to sprint clear while Dyna's Lassie settles in.

Completing the field are All Is Vanity, winner of the Grade 3 Eatontown Stakes at Monmouth this summer; Quiet Harbor, a winner of three in a row making her stakes debut; Skylighter, winner of two Grade 2 stakes on dirt, the DuPont Distaff and the Indiana Oaks; and Always for Love, Datts Our Girl, Julia Tuttle, Lookalike, Talkin About Love, and Way With Words.