Fond of You has right connections to win Sorority
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Change has come to the Sorority Stakes since its winner last went on to capture a graded race, but the owner and trainer of the last such filly, Micheline, have the horse to beat in this year’s renewal of the $100,000 Sorority on Sunday at Monmouth Park.
Micheline, a Godolphin homebred trained by Michael Stidham, won the 2019 Sorority, landed the $500,000 Dueling Grounds Oaks, and finished second in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup in 2020. In her 2021 debut as a 4-year-old she took down the Grade 2 Hillsborough at Tampa Bay.
Micheline won the Sorority as a one-mile grass race before Monmouth moved it to dirt in 2021, but a two-turn dirt mile should work just fine for the Godolphin homebred Fond of You.
Fond of You debuted July 26 at Colonial Downs and won a 5 1/2-furlong dirt sprint in a gallop. Not only did she show enough speed after breaking from the rail, Fond of You turned a three-length stretch call lead into a 5 1/2-length victory, hitting the finish like a 2-year-old filly fully capable of handling a route race.
And it’s not like jockey Francisco Arrieta, who has a return call Sunday, hustled Fond of You out of the gate to make the lead. The filly broke well enough that Arrieta eased her to the front in the first half-furlong, Fond of You setting the pace under a rating hold.
She looks capable of sitting off a more aggressively ridden rival if need be, and Fond of You has the pedigree to stretch out. Stidham trained her dam, Hallie Belle, a winner of two route stakes, and trains Fond of You’s half-brother Maycocks Bay, who was third this year in the Mineshaft Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile dirt race.
Dazzling Dame also broke from the rail and won her debut, a 5 1/2-furlong Laurel Park sprint, though that June 27 contest went with just four runners after five scratches. Dazzling Dame, like Fond of You, increased her lead through the final furlong and galloped out well enough, but she’s out of the Corinthian mare Awesome Dama, a sprinter herself who has produced three sprinters during her broodmare career. That said, Dazzling Dame does possess the physical profile of a filly who might get a two-turn route this early in her 2-year-old campaign.
Slick Merlin, who comes out of the Colleen, a turf sprint, surely will show speed from her outside draw in this six-horse field, but her dirt debut win came over New Jersey-bred competition.
Spitfire exits a second-start Saratoga sprint win over restricted maidens in which she drew clear to a 3 1/2-length score despite going her final furlong in a pedestrian 13.58. She might have to finish faster to run down Fond of You.
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