Include Betty, Danzatrice try to turn back clock in Tiffany Lass

Two very good 3-year-olds of 2015, Include Betty and Danzatrice, will try to dredge up some past glory in the $50,000 Tiffany Lass Stakes on Monday at Fair Grounds.

The two are part of a short field of six in the Tiffany Lass, which is carded for a mile and 70 yards on dirt, and goes early on the card as race 5 due to its limited attractiveness as a betting proposition. The Tiffany Lass, however, opens the door to a series of appealing allowance and maiden races that run all the way through race 10 on an 11-race card which starts at 1:25 p.m. Central.

Include Betty won the Grade 1 Mother Goose Stakes in June 2015, rallying into a strong pace to score going away. She won the $200,000 Remington Oaks later in the year and ended her 3-year-old campaign with an encouraging second in the Valley View at Keeneland, her turf debut. But she has gone through something of a lost 4-year-old season.

Include Betty is 0 for 4 this year and didn’t start between May and October. Her most recent start, the Falls City last month at Churchill Downs, produced a 10th-place finish.

Trainer Tom Proctor experimented using blinkers on Include Betty in the Falls City, understandable given the filly’s tendency to drop too far off the pace early in her races. Safe to say Proctor saw all he needed in that race, as the blinkers come off for the Tiffany Lass. Still, any horseplayer casting a cold eye on Monday’s race has to think Include Betty, given her running style in this short field, and her abbreviated campaign, will offer no value as the likely Tiffany Lass favorite.

Danzatrice should be a slightly better price, and at least has more tactical pace than Include Betty. Her 2015 high point came when she finished a competitive fourth in the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes, but after one more start that summer, Danzatrice disappeared until this fall.

She had moved into the barn of trainer Steve Asmussen when she returned. Danzatrice actually looked strong winning an allowance race first time back at Delta Downs, but after a bold bid on the turn Nov. 19 in the Treasure Chest Stakes, she faded back to third. Danzatrice can do better Monday, and might enjoy leaving Delta’s bullring.

Cinnamon Spice, making her two-turn dirt debut and trained by Larry Jones, looms the potential controlling speed at a fair price.

The non-stakes portion of the card includes two second-level turf allowance races, the sixth and the eighth, and three two-turn dirt races for 2-year-olds – a first-level allowance and a pair of maiden races.

The mile and 70-yard allowance, race 7, is a prep for the Jan. 21 Lecomte, and drew seven entrants, with Society Beau, Hollow Point, and Bobby the Brain the three most likely winners. Society Beau, trained by Neil Howard, has improved steadily with racing and distance, and could offer the most value if his 7-2 morning-line price holds. Hollow Point won a Keeneland seven-furlong maiden race for trainer Mark Casse at second asking, coming home with a strong final furlong, while Bobby the Brain was a first-out winner around two turns at Fair Grounds on Dec. 3.

“He’s a smaller athletic-type horse that doesn’t seem like he needs quite as much recovery time as some,” trainer Mike Stidham said of Bobby the Brain. “He’s training great since his race, so we’re running.”