Katie M'lady tries for second straight stakes win

The demise of Arlington Park hit trainer Michele Boyce’s barn like a ton of bricks. A fixture on the Chicago circuit for more than 30 years, Boyce was worried about the fate of her stable back in 2021, well before Arlington was closed. She set up a string last year at Horseshoe Indianapolis but won just two races from 17 starters there. This year, back at Hawthorne, Boyce began slowly again. Midway through the June 22 card, she had only three winners from 39 starters, but since losing with her first runner that day, Boyce has gone 15-5-3-4. One of the recent winners, Katie M’lady, can win her second straight stakes Thursday in the $75,000 Romacaca Handicap.

The Romacaca, carded for 1 1/16 miles on turf and restricted to older fillies and mares, drew a dozen entrants, but one of them, Princess Theorem, just raced Sunday at Ellis Park. She Can’t Sing is the 123-pound starting highweight, with Katie M’lady surprisingly heavily weighted at 122 having never won a stakes outside Illinois-bred competition.

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Boyce is part of the group that bred and owns Katie M’lady, Cherrywood Racing II and Oak Rock Racing, and the 5-year-old, by Dominus, is one of many family members to race for Boyce. Boyce trained Katie M’lady’s second dam, the turf stakes winner Kate the Great, as well as Katie M’lady’s dam, Katie the Lady, a turf stakes winner and a sister to two more Boyce-trained stakes winners, Blue Sky Kowboy and My Mertie. Katie M’lady’s 3-year-old full sister, R Katiebug, just missed in a July 30 Hawthorne turf-route allowance race.

Katie M’lady was a decent if headstrong 2-year-old, has improved every year while becoming more professional, and clearly has hit peak form during 2023. Much more a turf horse than dirt runner, she nevertheless was much the best July 6 in an off-turf renewal of the Indian Maid Stakes. Katie M’lady is sure to race forwardly under Julio Felix but is favorably drawn outside her pace rivals, Takntothecleaners and Wave of Goodness, and might be content at this stage of her career to sit just behind them.

Fuente Ovejuna is weighted too low at 116 and clearly can win the Romacaca with a bounce-back performance. In from Kentucky for trainer Brendan Walsh, she’s unlikely to go postward as high as her 10-1 morning line but might still offer value. The filly, by Lope de Vega, has improved considerably this year at age 4, and has turned in several races this year strong enough to contend. She took a step back in a July 8 Indiana stakes, finishing seventh with no apparent excuse, but can get a favorable trip from post 1.

Trail Ridge Road is drawn widest but would be an overlay at anything close to her 12-1 morning-line price. She wasn’t at her best her last two starts but was very progressive over the winter at Fair Grounds and remains a 4-year-old with upside.

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