Eight Belles becomes Plan B for Carina Mia
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Carina Mia is in a graded stakes race for 3-year-old fillies on the first Friday in May at Churchill Downs. It’s just not the one her connections had hoped to be in.
Unable to crack the field of 14 for Friday’s $1 million Kentucky Oaks, Carina Mia will have to settle for a start in the Grade 2, $200,000 Eight Belles Stakes.
A likely midpriced horse in the Kentucky Oaks, Carina Mia figures to go off heavily favored in the Eight Belles, a seven-furlong race that drew a field of eight.
“She’s fine at seven-eighths. I’m not worried about that,” trainer Bill Mott said. “But it’s not the Kentucky Oaks.”
The Oaks was probably on the minds of Mott and Three Chimneys Farm owner Goncalo Torrealba shortly after Carina Mia won the Golden Rod Stakes here last fall. Carina Mia’s 3-year-old schedule got thrown off, first by an illness that kept her out of the Davona Dale at Gulfstream in February and then by a quarantine of the Payson Park training center that prevented her from running in the Honeybee Stakes at Oaklawn in March.
Thus, Carina Mia ran in the Grade 1 Ashland at Keeneland off a four-month layoff and finished fourth after setting the early pace.
Carina Mia, who will break from post 5 under Julien Leparoux, will race on Lasix for the first time in the Eight Belles.
“We thought she would be better with Lasix,” Mott said.
Nickname, the winner of the Grade 1 Frizette at 2, could have run in the Kentucky Oaks had trainer Steve Asmussen so desired. But Asmussen held her out of that race to run in this, saying “it’s the right spot” for the daughter of Scat Daddy.
Nickname is coming out of a runner-up finish in the Grade 3 Beaumont at Keeneland on April 17.
Asmussen will also run Stageplay, who cuts back to a one-turn race off less-than-stellar efforts going two turns in the Rachel Alexandra and Fair Grounds Oaks. Stageplay defeated Carina Mia when the two debuted in the same 6 1/2-furlong race at Keeneland last October.
Eight Belles, Race 7
KEY CONTENDERS
Carina Mia, by Malibu Moon
Last 3 Beyers: 88-88-97
◗ The last time she sprinted, she won a 6 1/2-furlong maiden race by 9 3/4 lengths at Keeneland. She has fired two bullet workouts since the Ashland before going an easy half-mile here Monday.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 5 Carina Mia. Trainer Bill Mott is 21-2-3-2 with a $1.01 ROI over the past five years going route to sprint with horses getting Lasix for the first time. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
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DRF FORMULATOR FACT: Over the last five years, Mott is 12 for 52 with $2.03 return on investment in a dirt graded stakes in the second start off a layoff.
Stageplay, by Curlin
Last 3 Beyers: 66-67-82
◗ Went 2 for 2 in one-turn races to begin her career, including a victory in the Rags to Riches Stakes going a mile here last November.
Nickname, by Scat Daddy
Last 3 Beyers: 85-70-78
◗ Another who seems better suited to one-turn races as her 2-3-0 record from five starts in such races would attest.
◗ Speaking of Nickname and Stageplay, Asmussen said, “I think they’re both top-quality fillies. It’s just this distance right now is where they’re at.”
◗ Javier Castellano, aboard for both of Nickname’s victories, has the call.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 2 Jade Princess. Trainer Bob Baffert is 22-7-2-2 with a $4.43 ROI over the past five years going route to sprint with 3-year-olds in graded stakes. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan