Fast Puff faces older rivals in Knotts Stakes

Fast Puff will put her perfect record on the line Saturday at Arapahoe Park when she takes on older rivals for the first time in the $40,000 Ingrid Knotts. The six-furlong race is restricted to fillies and mares bred in Colorado. Others making up the 12-horse field include stakes winners Angel of the Wind, Renee’s Passion, and Sorta Special.

Fast Puff won all three of her starts last year at 2, all at Arapahoe. She scored by 8 1/4 lengths in her maiden special weight debut in June, then came back to win by more than 10 lengths in the $48,000 Colorado Thoroughbred Breeders Association Lassie in July. Fast Puff closed out her campaign by defeating open company in the $33,000 fillies’ division of the Silver Cup Futurity on Aug. 3. She will be facing arguably the steepest test of her young career in the Ingrid Knotts.

“It’s tough, and they have to be pretty good to beat the older horses,” co-owner and trainer Butch Gleason said in a release issued by Arapahoe. “She’s grown a lot taller and gotten a lot bigger. She was a little bitty horse last year. She’s got a lot of heart. It’ll be interesting.”

Luis Rodriguez has the mount on Fast Puff, a daughter of the Grand Slam stallion Grand Minstrel. The pair will break from post 9. Fast Puff also races for David Robertson Jr.