ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The talented maiden Lakota Lady could graduate in style in Saturday’s $125,000 Star Shoot for 3-year-old fillies, the first stakes of the Woodbine meet. Lakota Lady worked strongly prior to debuting in a Feb. 14 maiden special weight on the dirt at Fair Grounds. Sent off at 13-1 in a deep field, she finished a clear second to Goodall, who subsequently took the Purple Martin Stakes at Oaklawn Park with a 94 Beyer Speed Figure. “She was a little rank in that race,” trainer Preston Ferris recalled. “She’s sort of tough to ride and made a big move on the backside, which might have cost her some energy for the stretch. Overall, we were very pleased. Obviously, you want to get the win, but she showed a lot of toughness down the lane.” Lakota Lady was favored in another six-furlong maiden special weight at Fair Grounds on March 13, but came up empty after vying for the lead through quick fractions. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. “It was a disappointment and not a true reflection of what we think she is capable of,” Ferris said. “There were some fast fractions, along with pressure from the inside and outside along the backside. She likes to see horses in front of her and go after them.” Lakota Lady worked five furlongs in a bullet 59 seconds here on April 12 and went on to breeze a half-mile in 48.40 last Saturday, much to Ferris’s satisfaction. “She is coming into the race in great shape,” Ferris said. “Maybe I got in her way too much after the first race, so you learn from that and we are going to take her into this race the way we did with her first race.” Completing the lineup for the six-furlong Star Shoot are Nonna’s Love, Edey, Likely Story, Golden Thread, and the supplements Mony Mony and Day to Day. Off a series of Tapeta works, Nonna’s Love is making her first start for trainer Kevin Attard following a layoff. She won a maiden special weight second time out last spring on the grass at Aqueduct and didn’t race again until a wide sixth in a Jan. 8 allowance at Gulfstream Park. “She’s been doing well. Her last couple of works have been solid enough,” Attard said. “She seems to be getting over [the Tapeta] well enough. I worked her three-eighths in company with Two Out Hero last weekend and I was very happy with the move. They were head and head and galloped out really well.” Edey is trained by Bill Morey at Turfway Park, where she won a maiden race at second asking before ending up fourth in a March 7 allowance. Golden Thread ships in off a well-beaten fifth over a sloppy track in a seven-furlong allowance at Keeneland. She ran first and second in her two Tapeta excursions versus maidens at Turfway for trainer Eoin Harty. The Joe Sharp-trained Mony Mony won two in a row at Turfway before checking in sixth most recently there in the Serena’s Song Stakes. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.