Keeneland: Daisy Devine on her home turf in First Lady Stakes

[bc_video_id:306300:]If Saturday’s Grade 1, $400,000 First Lady were being run at Churchill Downs on its grass course, Daisy Devine would be an outsider in a race that includes such accomplished runners as Dayatthespa, Hungry Island, and Better Lucky.

But with the race being run at Keeneland, her home track, Daisy Devine ranks as a contender alongside those top-class grass runners.

“She’s just got a huge affinity for the turf course,” trainer Andrew McKeever said.

In four starts on the Keeneland grass, all in graded stakes, she won the Grade 3 Valley View at 3, the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley the next spring at 4, and ran a close second in this race last year. She also crossed the wire second in this year’s Jenny Wiley, only to be disqualified for testing above the allowable threshold for clenbuterol, a bronchodilator.

Although Daisy Devine enters the First Lady off a layoff, not having raced since a second behind fellow First Lady entrant Miz Ida in the June 8 Mint Julep at Churchill, McKeever said it was not the plan to run her fresh. He had hoped to start her in the Aug. 24 Ballston Spa at Saratoga, but for the second straight year, Daisy Devine had feet issues in the summer.

Being able to work over the Keeneland turf course over the past month has been key in her overcoming her feet sensitivity, McKeever said, crediting Keeneland officials for allowing her that opportunity.

Saturday’s First Lady could be the last race for Daisy Devine, a 5-year-old Kafwain mare entered in Keeneland’s November breeding stock sale.

Regular jockey James Graham rides for owner James Miller.

Dayatthespa, favored at 9-5 on the morning line, is another horse with an excellent record at Keeneland, though she runs well most everywhere. She won the Appalachian and Queen Elizabeth II over this grass course last year as a 3-year-old.

In each of those victories, she raced on the lead while setting easy fractions – circumstances that don’t appear likely to happen in the First Lady. Daisy Devine has the speed to run with her, as does longshot Winding Way, who comes out of sprint races on the West Coast.

Should a fast pace develop, that would play to the strength of Hungry Island and Better Lucky, who closed to be second and third in the Grade 3 Noble Damsel at Belmont on Sept. 14. Both are graded stakes winners at the First Lady’s one-mile distance.

European shippers Say and Amazonas add further intrigue. The former, in particular, has the credentials to suggest she could threaten, having just run third in a Group 1 race in Ireland. She also was second in July to Dank, eventual winner of the Grade 1 Beverly D.