Langs Lash dropping for U.S. debut

DEL MAR, Calif. - Langs Lash ran in some of the elite races in Great Britain for 2-year-old fillies last year, but for her U.S. debut in Thursday's featured seventh race at Del Mar, she is taking a decided drop in class to an optional claimer.

She also is making her first start since October, a delay caused in part by her getting ill during the Hollywood Park meeting earlier this year. On class, she's an absolute standout. On current form, though, she's a question mark.

"She came to me at the end of last year, but she caught the flu at Hollywood Park this spring," said trainer Neil Drysdale, for whom Langs Lash will be making her first start.

That's not the only adjustment Drysdale has had to make. Langs Lash ran five times last year. She won the prestigious Queen Mary Stakes, a Group 2 event at Royal Ascot in which she defeated 16 rivals. She also ran second in a listed stakes race at York and was a close third in the Group 2 Lowther Stakes at Newmarket. But all five of her races were run on straightaways. Thursday's race, at five furlongs on turf with a purse of $62,000, will be her first around a turn, and she drew the outside post.

"When we first started training her, she didn't want to turn left," Drysdale said. "That's why she has blinkers for the race. But it's not full blinkers. She just has an outside extension cup for her right eye. Since we've been training her with an extension cup, she goes around the turns well."

There are six entered in the seventh race, which is for second-level allowance horses, or $62,500 claimers. Two of the horses - Cape of Bradford and Silent Stalk - are eligible to be claimed, and both have excellent chances.

Cape of Bradford comes off a second-place finish in a similar race July 23. With her sharp speed, she figures to dash to the early lead.

Silent Stalk won at this level May 16 at Hollywood Park. Since she has blown that allowance condition, she is in for a tag this time. Silent Stalk finished in the money in her first seven starts before finishing fifth in the Manhattan Beach Stakes at Hollywood Park in her last outing June 5.

See N Win invades from Northern California following a victory in a first-level allowance race at Solano, but she did romp against maidens in her only grass race, going five furlongs at Bay Meadows on June 12.