If speed is sticking, Puntsville can go out a winner in Powerless Handicap

STICKNEY, Ill. – Puntsville’s first race came on July 10, 2014 at Arlington. Her last one is Friday at Hawthorne.

Seven-year-old Puntsville has been among the best (if not the very best) Illinois-bred female sprinters since 2015, but her connections are calling time on her racing career following Friday’s $50,000 Powerless Handicap, a six-furlong dirt race for Illinois-bred fillies and mares.

“She’ll be going to Kentucky to be bred after that race,” said Michele Boyce, who trains Puntsville, a daughter of Cashel Castle and the very good broodmare Deville, for her breeders, Steve and Diane Holland.

Puntsville is one of seven entrants in the Powerless and is the 121-pound second highweight behind favored Jean Elizabeth, who totes 125 pounds. She’s listed as the 4-1 third choice on the morning line but seems more likely to be second favorite at post time. Puntsville has lost a couple steps from her peak form but ran one good race this summer over Arlington’s turf course and is 4-3-0-1 in Hawthorne dirt races. She’s going to the front from post 2 over a winterized racing strip that can help front-runners this time of year.

“I think she’s sitting on tilt. She like Hawthorne and she’s trained exceptionally well,” Boyce said. “Running fresh – that’s been one of her trademarks.”

Jean Elizabeth will be formidable as a likely odds-on favorite, though she is switching from her preferred synthetic surfaces to dirt.

“I think maybe she’s a tick not as good on dirt as synthetic,” said trainer Larry Rivelli, who also co-bred and co-owns 4-year-old Jean Elizabeth.

Still, Jean Elizabeth has won both her dirt races at Hawthorne, ran creditably last fall in dirt stakes at Churchill Downs and Aqueduct, and comes off a victory Oct. 19 at Woodbine in the Grade 3 Ontario Fashion Stakes. Rivelli said he never asks horses to work fast in their first breeze following a race and Jean Elizabeth’s half-mile bullet in 46 seconds Nov. 3 at Hawthorne was done in hand.

“She’s usually a terrible work horse, but she worked great. She was on the knot with her ears up,” Rivelli said.

If the early and middle pace gets too crazy, Dandy Gal, an eight-time winner in 15 Hawthorne dirt starts, would be the beneficiary, but she’s probably in the end just not fast enough for the top two.

The Powerless goes as race 7, post time 5:58 p.m. Central, on a card that starts at 3:15 p.m.

Boyce-trained mares heading to retirement

In addition to Puntsville, two more Illinois-bred stalwarts in the Michele Boyce barn will become broodmares in 2020.

My Mertie already has been retired and could be bred to Tiz Samurai during the upcoming breeding season, while Lovely Loyree makes her career finale later this week at Churchill Downs. Graded-turf-stakes-placed Lovely Loyree, an 8-year-old, has soldiered through a 28-start career over five calendar years that has yielded more than $400,000 in career earnings.

◗ Bitter cold and snow early this week has put an end to the turf-racing season in Chicago.