Four-stakes card headlined by competitive Vivacious
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Half of Friday’s eight-race card at Belterra Park is made up of $75,000 stakes for Ohio-bred or Ohio-accredited runners. The Vivacious Stakes for fillies and mares and Horizon Stakes for 3-year-olds on the turf are joined by the Hoover Stakes and Jim Morgan Memorial Tah Dah Stakes for 2-year-olds.
The biggest field of the day, with 11 entrants, is the Vivacious. It’s also perhaps the most competitive. Ohio-bred stakes winners Here’s the Spider, Lionistic, Lo Bug, and R U Enticed are joined by Awesomesauce and La Artista, who are both shipping in to race against statebreds after successful open-company efforts out of state.
Awesomesauce has won two of her six lifetime starts for Joe Sharp, with maiden and allowance wins on the Fair Grounds turf. She races in Ohio, the state of her birth, for the first time after most recently finishing sixth in the Keertana at Churchill Downs.
In addition to her open-company performances with solid speed figures, her extensive turf experience makes her a standout. Belterra is the only one of Ohio’s three Thoroughbred tracks with a turf course and opportunities on grass are limited on this circuit.
La Artista, currently trained by Matt Kintz, was second in last year’s Tomboy Stakes on the Belterra Park turf. She is coming off an allowance win on Tapeta at Presque Isle Downs. The race was her first in seven months.
Multiple stakes winner Here’s the Spider, second in the 2025 Vivacious when the race taken off the turf, has finished on the board in two of her four career turf starts, including the 2024 Tomboy when she missed by a neck. Her record is solid, considering her other three turf starts came out of state against open company.
The 3-year-old R U Enticed will be trying turf for the first time as well as facing older horses. She won the Queen City Oaks in late May and most recently finished third against males in the Cleveland Gold Cup.
Horizon Stakes
The $75,000 Horizon Stakes for Ohio-accredited 3-year-olds goes the same 1 1/16 miles on turf as the Vivacious.
A pair of fillies have chosen to run against males here rather than face older fillies and mares. They are Striking Lady, who is coming off back-to-back wins, including the off-the-turf Cincinnatian last month, and Lil Sharpie, who was third in the Cincinnatian.
The morning-line favorite is the gelding Rogues a Plotting, who has won 4 of 6 this year but is stepping up in class. He comes off back-to-back wins for a $50,000 claiming tag.
Hoover Stakes
The field of eight 2-year-olds for the Hoover, which includes several first-time starters, is led by Book Value, from the first crop of Mandaloun. He is heavily favored off a 3 3/4-length debut win with a 63 Beyer Speed Figure – 19 points better than the next-highest figure in the field.
Tah Dah
The field of 10 2-year-old fillies in the Tah Dah is more wide open. Only three have won – Box Office Hit, Chicabee, and Maddy’s Fury – with the rest either maidens or first-time starters.
The favorites are from the latter categories. Panda Listen is the morning-line choice, as she comes in to make her debut for the hot Brendan Walsh barn following a bullet work at Churchill.
Major Rager, ninth on debut last month at Churchill for Joe Sharp, is the second choice.
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