Geometry's future takes shape heading into Kent Stakes
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Geometry will make his return to the East Coast in the $150,000 Kent Stakes on Saturday at Delaware Park. After a fourth-place finish in the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby last month, trainer Jonathan Thomas said his 3-year-old gelding may have star potential.
“He’s going to need to run respectably here against this group to think about going to the next level,” Thomas said. “But certainly he’s suggesting he could be a quality horse.”
After an uneventful debut at Kentucky Downs in August 2024, Geometry has been competitive while improving in three subsequent starts. He earned his maiden victory at Churchill Downs later in his juvenile season and returned to racing on the West Coast in August, taking down an $81,000 allowance field off a 10-month layoff.
In a five-horse running of the Del Mar Derby later that month, the gelding’s fourth by two lengths might not seem particularly flashy, but Thomas said that he seemed to appreciate more ground and took a small step forward to contend with tougher competition. It should prepare him well for the same 1 1/8-mile distance in the Kent.
The top two finishers in the $125,000 Toronto Cup could ship in from Woodbine for the Kent. Trainer Dale Desruisseaux cross-entered the winner, Church and State, in the $150,000 Gio Ponti on Sunday at Aqueduct. If he goes to Delaware, he will be rematched with Thundering, a gelding trained by Patrick Dixon.
Christiana Stakes
Irish-bred fillies Sigh No More and Pretty Lavish will renew their rivalry in the $150,000 Christiana Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf Saturday. The familiar foes have squared off three times since May and will both try to bounce back from flat performances in the $250,000 Old Dominion Oaks.
Trainer Brendan Walsh said that rain shortly before the race at Colonial Downs last month played a part in Sigh No More’s fifth-place finish, as she cut the corner turning for home but struggled to make up ground on the soft turf. Walsh will add blinkers in her fifth start this year.
“Sometimes, we feel that she just lacks a little focus,” Walsh said. “So we worked her in [blinkers] a couple of times since and it seemed to help her, so we’ll try them on Saturday.”
Trainer Graham Motion originally considered Pretty Lavish’s fourth in the Old Dominion Oaks a disappointment, but he now sees more in his filly’s 2 1/4-length defeat that day. The performance was an improvement over her distant sixth-place finish in the Grade 3 Ontario Colleen at Woodbine in July.
“Her only real head scratch probably was in Canada in the Colleen, which was a bit of a puzzle to me because her other races have been very consistently good,” Motion said.
Results between the two fillies have been mixed to this point. Pretty Lavish finished ahead of Sigh No More in the $125,000 Hilltop at Pimlico and again at Colonial last month, but Sigh No More earned the only stakes victory between the pair in June when she kicked away to win the $100,000 Boiling Springs at Monmouth Park.
Several new faces in the field of 10 could threaten to break up the rematch on Saturday. Thomas will enter Ambaya in stakes company in her third career start and said that he likes her chances after a photo-finish defeat in a Colonial allowance in July.
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Endine Stakes
For the first time in her career, Sunday Girl will travel outside New York to take on a vulnerable field in the $150,000 Endine Stakes. The 4-year-old filly has won 7 of 10 starts for trainer David Duggan and will switch back to dirt for the first time since March.
“She turned the corner in the new year and really kind of moved her game up,” Duggan said. “So she’s got a little stronger, little older, a little bit more mature. She’s been a lot of fun.”
With limited options on the New York-bred stakes circuit this summer, Duggan had to try Sunday Girl on turf. She easily passed that test in June, kicking away to win the $125,000 John B. Hettinger by 2 1/4 lengths.
In August, the filly might have simply been overwhelmed at Saratoga when she finished seventh behind Future Is Now in the $150,000 Smart and Fancy. It marked the second time in her 10-race career that she did not finish second or better. For the three-time stakes winner’s return to dirt, Duggan chose the six-furlong Endine over the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom on Saturday at Aqueduct.
Sunday Girl’s most likely rival in the field of six is Striker Has Dial, the likely pacesetter trained by Horacio De Paz. The 4-year filly seemed to be on her way to consistent stakes contention when she finished second in the $125,000 Skipat at Pimlico, but she had less to offer on sloppy tracks at Saratoga in the Grade 2 Honorable Miss and a $120,000 allowance this summer.
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