Ellis Park: Co-featured allowances on dirt, turf

A pair of first-level allowances serve as the nominal features on the first Saturday of the 2012 meet at Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky., with both offering up $33,000 purses.

The first allowance goes as race 4 on the nine-race card and is for 3-year-old fillies going 6 1/2 furlongs on the main track. Cheery, with Corey Lanerie riding for trainer Al Stall Jr., looks like a major contender on a turnback after finishing second in a recent two-turn race at Churchill Downs for this same condition. Whispering Wisdom and Totally Tucker figure as her chief threats in a field of six.

The second allowance occupies the customary race-8 feature slot and drew a field of 11 fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles on the turf. Putthebabiesdown, with Fabio Arguello Jr. getting the call from trainer Ken McPeek, is the class of the group, having finished third in the Grade 1 Alcibiades last fall. Fleur de Lily, Zeenut, Teeny Liz, and Special Dancer are other considerations.

Most Saturday cards through Sept. 3, the end of the 29-day Ellis meet, will offer bigger races, including several with overnight stakes worth $37,000. The first of three stakes worth at least $50,000 comes next Saturday, July 14, with the Ellis Park Turf Stakes. The meet highlight, the Grade 3, $100,000 Gardenia Stakes, is set for Aug. 11.