Home is sweet for 'Forever'

A little home cooking may be all it takes to get Stay Forever back on track in Saturday's $150,000 Hollywood Wildcat Breeders' Cup Handicap at Calder Race Course in Miami.

Stay Forever enters the Hollywood Wildcat off a pair of subpar efforts at Gulfstream Park and Tampa Bay Downs. On both occasions, Stay Forever failed to muster her usual stretch-running kick, finishing eighth in both the Grade 3 The Very One Handicap at Gulfstream and the Turf Distaff Handicap at Tampa Bay.

But Stay Forever rarely runs a poor race on her home grounds, having won five of her eight starts over the Calder turf course. She'll also benefit from what figures to be an honest pace, with Doc's Doll, Mrs M, Dandy Rose, and Love Sting all expected to vie for the early lead.

Stay Forever will receive a three-pound weight break from likely favorite Derrianne, the 117-pound highweight in the 1 1/16-mile Hollywood Wildcat.

Trainer Christophe Clement has left Derrianne behind at Payson Park specifically to compete in this race. A 4-year-old daughter of Cozzene, Derrianne has won two of her three starts since shipping to this country from France last spring, including the Grade 3 Martha Washington Breeders' Cup in her U.S. debut. She returned from a 5 1/2-month layoff to register a neck victory in a third-level allowance at Gulfstream on April 4.

Sweettrickydancer, a two-time stakes winner over this course earlier in her career, signaled that she was rounding back to her best form when she finished less than a length behind the multiple stakes winner Meridiana on March 5. Like Stay Forever and Derrianne, she should benefit from a contested pace.