Laurel Park: Steady N Love looks to prove recent form is no fluke in Caesar’s Wish

Between Oct. 19 and Jan. 25, the filly Steady N Love raced six times and proved true to the first part of her name. She was no worse than third during that span while recording Beyer Speed Figures in the narrow range between 56 and 60.

Something dramatic happened when trainer Gary Capuano stretched out Steady N Love from seven furlongs to 1 1/16 miles and dropped her in class from a stakes to a first-level optional $50,000 claimer on Feb. 17. She romped by nearly 21 lengths, and her Beyer soared to a 77.

Handicappers now must decide whether that signaled a breakthrough performance or makes Steady N Love a bounce candidate when she returns to stakes company against six other 3-year-old fillies in Saturday’s $100,000 Caesar’s Wish Stakes at Laurel Park.

Steady N Love will return to a one-turn mile, a distance where she was a good second three starts back, albeit with a 58 Beyer, almost 20 points lower than she ran most recently.

“She is getting better and is a nice improving filly who tries every time, which is all you can ask for,” Capuano said. “Obviously her last race she was in the right kind of field and ran to it. The race before that she ran against Taris, who is a very nice filly. We got into some trouble around the far turn but made up some distance and ran a really good second. We were happy with that effort.”

Capuano’s limited stats with fillies and mares returning in a dirt route after winning with a career-high Beyer don’t provide many clues. He’s 0 for 3 over the past five years. Capuano runners have finished in the money 18 times in 21 starts at Laurel this year.

It is also difficult to gauge what to expect from the two most viable alternatives to Steady N Love in the lineup.

Brown Rice comes in 2 for 2 in one-mile races on dirt, including a 1 3/4-length victory in her most recent start. That came back on Dec. 31, however. Her trainer, Ferris Allen, is 2 for 20 (10 percent) with only 25 percent in-the-money finishes with runners returning in a dirt route following a break of 61 to 180 days.

Tupancy Links also won last time out, getting up by a nose going a mile in a first-level optional $50,000 claimer on Feb. 1. Trainer Vern Allinson shows an 0-for-6 record with all last-out winners returning following a layoff of 31 to 60 days.

The remaining four starters - New Zone, Fibber and Molly, Aviddiva, and Sollie Go Nee Nee - were supplemented to the stakes after it failed to fill last weekend and would have to improve substantially to run a figure that would make them competitive in this spot.