Hay Stack has some class in her company lines
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Churchill Downs opens another four-day racing week Thursday, with a pair of allowance-level turf races for fillies and mares topping the card as nominal features.
The fourth race on Thursday’s card is a $127,000 allowance going 1 3/8 miles. Hay Stack, racing for Peter Brant and Chad Brown, tangled with eventual stakes fillies in several key maiden races, and finally broke through last time when given more distance, rallying to win by a head going 1 1/8 miles at Keeneland. She gets even more ground to work with here.
Frivole has plenty of route experience, racing at up to 1 1/4 miles in France, and now makes her first start in the United States for Graham Motion.
The day’s seventh race, a $134,000 allowance/optional claimer, also has plenty of international flavor. Mise En Scene, an English Group 3 winner who was sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, remained in the United States to race with Brendan Walsh. She is making her second start of the year off a strong second at Keeneland and should be tighter for this effort.
Manuca is making her first start in the United States for Paulo Lobo. She was a Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed in Argentina last year.
Friday will be the first twilight card of the spring meet, with a first post of 6 p.m. Before darkness falls, stakes winners B G Warrior, Back to Ohio, and Dazzling Blue are likely to light it up tangling on the front end in the second race, a $134,000 allowance/optional-claiming sprint for 3-year-old fillies.
B G Warrior, who enjoyed a strong meet at Turfway Park, was a maiden winner on dirt last year at Belterra over two next-out winners. Back to Ohio won a pair of statebred stakes, including the Best of Ohio John Galbreath, but also shipped out to win the Debutante at Presque Isle.
Dazzling Blue, whose hand may be forced by drawing the rail, has won both her starts by open lengths, most recently the Letellier Memorial Stakes in December at Fair Grounds.
Sitting just off the pace and perhaps able to capitalize could be Sunday Shoes, unbeaten in two starts at Turfway, including the Serena’s Song.
The eighth race, a $134,000 allowance/optional-claiming event on the turf, includes several familiar names looking to get back in the winner’s circle. The main body of the field includes Grade 1-winning millionaire Henley’s Joy; graded stakes winner Stolen Base; stakes winners Price Talk and Rarified Flair; and graded/group-placed Altazor and Hidden Stash.
The feature on Saturday, when Churchill also will be simulcasting the Preakness card, will be the Grade 3, $225,000 Louisville Stakes on the turf. Entries will be drawn Wednesday, and assistant racing secretary and stakes coordinator Dan Bork lists Another Mystery, Bay Street, English Conqueror, Therapist, and Yamato as likely entrants.
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