Kiss Moon will try to rebound in Cardinal Handicap

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In 17 career races, Kiss Moon has established one of those good-bad-good-bad patterns that tend to confound trainers and horseplayers. So, it would come as little surprise if Kiss Moon rebounds from a subpar performance to close out her season with a big effort Saturday in the Grade 3, $100,000 Cardinal Handicap at Churchill Downs. The 4-year-old filly finished far back in the Grade 1 First Lady last month at Keeneland.

“We didn’t really have a big excuse other than this filly sometimes follows a big race with a bad one,” said Trisha Vance, the daughter of and assistant to trainer Dave Vance. “Hopefully, she’s due to bounce back with another nice race.”

And therein lies a major focus of the 42nd Cardinal, a 1 1/8-mile turf race that drew 13 fillies and mares. Kiss Moon has run huge on occasion, such as in each of her four stakes victories, but for greater consistency, handicappers have plenty else to turn to.

Button Down, making a quick stop in Kentucky while on a southward migration from Canada, is among the choice alternatives, as are Emotional Kitten, Annulment, Sistas Stroll, and the Graham Motion-trained Faufiler. A few others are trickier gauges, such as Wiener Valkyrie, a 66-1 runner-up in the Grade 3 Athenia at Belmont Park in her stateside debut, as well as Invading Humor and Lady Fog Horn, both last-out winners in statebred stakes company.

Kiss Moon will spot the opposition two to nine pounds when breaking from post 12 and carrying the high weight of 120 pounds, including jockey Julien Leparoux.

The Cardinal, the 10th of 11 Saturday races, will be directly preceded by the $80,000 Bet On Sunshine, a six-furlong overnight stakes that drew a well-matched field of nine 3-year-olds and up. First post is 12:40 p.m. Eastern, with the Cardinal set for 5:15.

KEY CONTENDERS

Kiss Moon (Last 3 Beyers: 85-93-91)

◗ Bred and owned by former Churchill board chairman Carl Pollard, this filly has flashed a terrific combination of speed and grit, albeit in sporadic fashion, such as when she captured the Grade 3 Mint Julep here in June or in her mild upset of I’m Already Sexy in September at Kentucky Downs.

Button Down (Last 3 Beyers: 98-97-95)

◗ Beyer Speed Figure-wise, this British-bred actually looks like the filly to beat in here, although it’s probably worth noting that she’s still eligible for second-level allowances. She was second in back-to-back stakes before finishing a respectable fifth in the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor five weeks ago.

Emotional Kitten (Last 3 Beyers: 88-92-91)

◗ It’s been more than a year since this Ramsey homebred last won a race, but she has been knocking on the door while sticking mostly to stakes. Trainer Wesley Ward: “She’s shown she fits at this level, and the mile and an eighth is just about right for her.”

Annulment (Last 3 Beyers: 88-89-97)

◗ Like quite a few fillies in the Vicki Oliver stable, this one has really come to hand in recent months, as evidenced by her last-out triumph over the Keeneland turf.