Edge of Night prepped and ready for Southern Park Stakes

The first stakes race of the year in Ohio will be contested Saturday, as Mahoning Valley cards the $75,000 Southern Park Stakes for statebred 3-year-old fillies.

Like the majority of tracks around the country, Mahoning Valley is continuing to run its meet without spectators, and with only personnel required to conduct live racing.

The six-furlong Southern Park, which will be part of a free live stream the track is making available on its website, is a six-furlong sprint led by the stakes-seasoned Edge of Night.

Edge of Night finished second in last year’s Miss Ohio Stakes while still a maiden. After winning a maiden race, she went on to win the Emerald Necklace Stakes at Thistledown and the Mahoning Valley Stakes at Mahoning Valley. Trained by Robert Gorham and owned by Mast Thoroughbreds. Edge of Night owns the highest Beyer Speed Figure in this field, posting a 60 while finishing fourth in the Joshua Radosevich Memorial on Dec. 7 at Mahoning Valley. That marked her 2-year-old finale, and she returned to the races on March 3 by finishing third against older horses in an allowance race at this track, beaten a length. Christian Pilares has ridden Edge of Night in all her races and has the mount Saturday.

Gorham also will saddle Tiz What and Ting Tang, both coming off allowance wins at Mahoning Valley. Tiz What earned a Beyer of 59 in her win.

Calusa Queen finished third in both the Miss Ohio at Thistledown and in the Tah Dah Stakes at Belterra last year and makes hert first start since August. Fantasy Fest and Shore of Eden both step into stakes company for the first time riding win streaks. Fantasy Fest was second on debut and then won her next two outings, all going six furlongs at Mahoning Valley. Shore of Eden, the most experienced member of the field, has won three straight allowance races at this track.

The second race on the card is an allowance race for older horses that features the return of multiple stakes winner Uno Mas Modelo, who is making his first start since finishing 10th in the Grade 1 Churchill Downs Stakes in May 2019. Uno Mas Modelo, now 7, hit his best stride late in his 5-year-old season, winning the Bet On Sunshine Stakes in November 2018 at Churchill Downs. He then won three stakes over the winter at Gulfstream, taking the Claiming Crown Rapid Transit, the Perseus, and the Rough and Ready Stakes, as well as finishing fourth in the Grade 3 Mr. Prospector Stakes.

The field also includes stakes winner More Than Good and graded stakes-placed First Growth and Smokin Nitro.

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Turfway Park

Several hours from Mahoning Valley, the nominal feature on the Saturday card at Turfway Park in Northern Kentucky is a $50,000 optional-claiming race that has drawn some familiar names.

Hemp Hemp Hurray comes off a third in the Forego Stakes at January won by Nun the Less, who won last Saturday’s Kentucky Cup Classic. The 5-year-old Hemp Hemp Hurray won a $12,500 claiming race in December in his first race in more than a year and was claimed by trainer Robert Cline for Eric Sizemore.

Hemp Hemp Hurray is two necks from being a Grade 2 winner, having finished second in the Summer Stakes at Woodbine at 2 and third in a blanket finish in the Nearctic there at 3. Earlier that year, Hemp Hemp Hurray won the Animal Kingdom Stakes at Turfway by 11 3/4 lengths.

Jersey Agenda makes his first start on a synthetic track and first for trainer Ethan West. Formerly trained Steve Asmussen and then Dallas Stewart, Jersey Agenda has run seventh and ninth in Oaklawn allowance sprints in his two races this year. This will be his third start off a nine-month layoff.

After winning two of his first three starts, Jersey Agenda was beaten by double-digit lengths in three graded stakes on Oaklawn’s Kentucky Derby trail last year.