Fast filly Noon Win will try to stretch her speed on turf

With four sprint stakes wins to her credit, Noon Win has earned a reputation as the fastest 3-year-old filly on dirt in Ohio. The question to be answered in Saturday's $45,000 Tomboy Stakes at River Downs is whether she can stretch her speed to 1 1/16 miles on turf.

The Tomboy, which launches the track's stakes season, is traditionally a tough read. With River Downs having the only turf course in Ohio, there are limited opportunities for statebred fillies to try the grass prior to the Tomboy, unless they do so out of state against open company.

With no previous turf winners in the Tomboy, Noon Win may be a slight favorite, but she is beatable. As a filly who rarely concedes more than a length or two in the opening furlong, Noon Win will be part of a pace that could get congested. Additional doubts about her ability to get a distance stem from her only other two-turn race, the John Galbreath Memorial at Beulah, where she tired precipitously to finish 10th after stalking the early pace.

Perfect Connection and Marketable, the second- and third-place finishers in the Galbreath, should have no problem with the Tomboy distance. Perfect Connection is one of only two fillies to have tried the turf, finishing fifth in an allowance at Tampa Bay Downs in January. Marketable won a two-turn stakes at Beulah last fall, but has been outrun in her two starts this year.

Seven maidens were entered in the Tomboy, but what some may lack in achievement they might make up for in potential fondness for the turf. Celestia, Paint My Dreams, Wicked Wanda, and Keepairinyourtires all have turf winners or turf influences in their pedigrees.