Encino may have slight edge in stacked Presque Isle Mile
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The $150,000 Presque Isle Mile, which headlines Friday night’s undercard stakes, is actually contested at 1 1/16 miles due to the track configuration. Regardless of the specifics, the overflow field of older horses has come up exceptionally strong this year. Graded stakes winners Encino, Trademark, and Boppy O, and Grade 1-placed The Wine Steward come to town to take on locally seasoned runners like Grounded, Surly Furious, and Twilight Dancer.
A Godolphin homebred trained by Brad Cox, Encino has recency and surface edges over his fellow graded stakes performers. While the colt won the Grade 3 Lexington on dirt last year and is a stakes winner on turf this year, his best efforts have come on a Tapeta surface similar to this one at Turfway Park, where he has never been worse than second.
Encino’s efforts at Turfway include a victory in the 2024 John Battaglia Memorial and a close runner-up effort in the Grade 3 Kentucky Cup Classic this year. He moves back to a synthetic surface off a solid summer on turf, as he won the Jonathan B. Schuster Memorial at Indiana and was third in the Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Mile at Ellis Park.
Encino, who prefers to be on or just off the lead, and Flavien Prat had mixed fortunes at the post-position draw. On the negative side, they wound up out in post 10 and will have to hustle in a relatively short run into the first turn to avoid losing too much ground. On the positive side, the draw placed them in a tactically solid position outside the other speed in the race – namely Grounded in post 7, who has won three straight races at Presque Isle, including the Avery Whisman Memorial last out.
Trademark and The Wine Steward, who will both surely get play off name recognition, are both trying a synthetic surface for the first time. Millionaire Trademark’s biggest of three stakes wins came in the Grade 2 Clark in the fall of 2023 at Churchill Downs. He was off the board in his only try on turf, and his lone win this year came in allowance company at Indiana.
The Wine Steward is a multiple stakes winner on the dirt at up to a mile, including a victory in this year’s Fifth Season at Oaklawn Park. He is also multiple graded stakes-placed, including a close second in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity.
Boppy O, who does not have a rider named, got his graded stakes victory in 2022 as a 2-year-old on the turf. His most recent win – his first in two years – came in a claiming race in August at Colonial Downs.
Surly Furious won the 2022 Presque Isle Mile, one of his three local stakes wins. He is also a multiple stakes winner on the Tapeta at Turfway. Twilight Dancer was a stakes winner at Presque Isle in 2024 and is coming off back-to-back runner-up efforts in Erie, including in the Whisman Memorial.
The Mile is joined on the Presque Isle Masters undercard by a pair of $100,000 stakes for 2-year-olds – the Fitz Dixon Jr. Memorial for open runners and the Presque Isle Debutante for fillies.
The most exciting youngster in those two races might be the Ohio-bred filly Kontiki in the Debutante. She was not eligible to stay home for Friday’s Ohio-accredited Loyalty Stakes at Belterra Park, as she is by a Kentucky stallion in the versatile Midshipman, whose influence should help her transfer to Tapeta. The filly has already faced open company for Stonestreet Farm and Cox. After finishing sixth on debut in a key race at Churchill Downs, won by Percy’s Bar, who is since a Grade 1-placed stakes winner, she then won a maiden race at Indiana.
Kontiki has since been untouchable in a pair of Ohio-bred filly stakes, winning the Tah Dah by 7 3/4 lengths and then overpowering the Best of Ohio Miss Ohio by 12 lengths. She earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 75 in the Tah Dah, the best in this field, although it does not tower over others.
In Her Glory, who may be an overlay here, was a Saratoga turf maiden winner with a 72 Beyer, defeating next-out winners in second and third.
Smooch Up earned a 70 Beyer in a Presque Isle maiden win before going on to be stakes-placed on dirt at Colonial. She is joined by local maiden winners Miss Thalia, Thank You Amy, and Tiz Goldy.
The morning-line choices in the Dixon Memorial are Max Capacity and Mo Dodgy. They are the only members of the field with prior stakes experience, although they were well beaten in those respective outings. Max Capacity has made his two starts on dirt, while Mo Dodgy emerged from finishing ninth in the Soaring Free at Woodbine for an allowance win at Presque Isle.
Mo Dodgy is joined as a local winner by A Million Dreams, who is cutting back in distance; Jes See Me; and Live Stream.
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