Litfin's preview: Pick three features all stakes

It’s all good

Mother Nature has bestowed beautiful weather for the 10-race Mother’s Day card. The main track is labeled good, and so are the turf courses, where three of five scheduled races remain on the grass.

Races 2 and 10 have been switched to the main track. Races 5, 7, and 9 remain on the turf, and race 7 – the $100,000 License Fee Stakes – has been moved to the Widener course.

All-stakes pick three

The License Fee kicks off an all-stakes pick three with the Ruffian Stakes (race 8) and Man o’ War Stakes (race 9), as well as the late pick four.
Free as a Bird and Believe in Charlie, who came out of the Giant’s Causeway at Keeneland three weeks ago, look like the right ones in the License Fee, but Coursegold comes off a sharp score in the Safari Queen at Gulfstream Park and has run well on non-firm ground in the past.

The outside draw in a field of six favors Fiftyshadesofhay in the Grade 2, $250,000 Ruffian. The Bob Baffert-trained filly has run her best races from a stalking position, but ever since running second in last year’s Alabama, she has either been caught up in enervating pace duels or taken all the way back to the rear of the field.

My Wandy’s Girl comes off her best race in the U.S. to win the Barbara Fritchie Handicap over La Verdad, who flattered that effort by coming right back to take the Grade 2 Distaff. My Wandy’s Girl was beaten less than a length in last year’s Ruffian (at Aqueduct) and maintains top form judging from her recent bullet works.

Grace Hall is the class of the field based on her overall body of work but hasn’t been out in more than a year since two disappointing efforts early in 2013.

With the exception of Real Solution, who was placed first in last year’s Arlington Million, there are no Grade 1 winners in the Man o’ War, which has been moved from its prior spot on the schedule in mid-July.

A big key will be how Imagining – who won the Red Smith at today’s 1 3/8-mile distance last fall – handles the ground. All 15 of his prior races have come on firm turf.

Palace Malice looms 1-20

Only three opponents could be mustered up against Palace Malice in today’s Westchester Stakes. One of them is his stablemate, Red Rifle, whose purpose looks to be pressuring I’m Steppin’ It Up through the early fractions.

The Westchester is positioned as race 3, and Palace Malace effectively turns the early pick four into a pick 3, and the pick five into a pick four.