Inagoodway eyes repeat in More Than Even Stakes

Inagoodway gave trainer Roger Engel a sentimental win a year ago, when she captured the $55,000 More Than Even Stakes at Will Rogers Downs. The mare will attempt to repeat the feat on Monday, when she starts as one of the top contenders in the one-mile and 70-yard race restricted to fillies and mares bred in Oklahoma.

Engel trained More Than Even, an eight-time stakes winner who earned $563,087 before being retired in 2016 by breeder and owner Doyle Williams. The race named in the mare’s honor Monday is the former Classic Distaff, which More Than Even won three times at Will Rogers.

Inagoodway, who faces five others, darted to a 2 1/4-length win in last year’s More Than Even. She enters this year’s running off a second-place finish in an allowance route against open company April 28 at Will Rogers. Inagoodway set the pace to the later stages and figures to again be prominent Monday, perhaps tracking the rail-drawn Diva’s Rule.

Bryan McNeil has the mount from post 2 for the partnership of Steve Dupy, Kent Blair, and breeder Mike Castor.

Diva’s Rule is stretching back out around two turns after racing with the pace in the $55,000 Great Lady M for Oklahoma-bred fillies and mares April 23 at Will Rogers, a race in which she finished fourth. The move back to two turns should be meaningful, as Diva’s Rule was a stakes winner at the configuration in September when she wired her rivals in the $50,000 Bob Barry Memorial at Remington Park.

A quick pace Monday might benefit Another Bond Girl, who is looking for her third career stakes win. She was second in the Great Lady M last out, closing from fifth. Trainer Brent Davidson co-bred and co-owns Another Bond Girl, a daughter of Don’t Get Mad, who leads all of the More Than Even starters in earnings with $242,750.

Fiddlers Tsunami, the winner of the Great Lady M, owns the field's best last-race Beyer Speed Figure, an 80. She is looking for her third win at the Will Rogers meet, behind an allowance sprint score March 12 and the Great Lady M.