Little separating Purple Violet field

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The morning line for the $50,000 Purple Violet, the Saturday feature and first stakes of the Arlington meet, pretty much says it all. Favored at 7-2 is Tizgorgeous, while the longest price among the eight entrants is 12-1 on Wildwood Kantharos.

There is little separating the octet of Illinois-bred 3-year-old fillies set to contest a one-turn Polytrack mile, and none of them is up to recent Purple Violet standards. Last year, Countess Cashmere won with an 83 Beyer Speed Figure, while 2013 winner Bold Kitten earned a 93, and La Tia – an eventual Grade 1 winner – won in 2012 with an 83 Beyer.

This year’s race looks a lot more like 2011, when Our Lady in Red won with a 73 Beyer. Coincidentally, Richie Scherer, who trained Our Lady in Red to that victory, also trains the tepid morning-line choice, Tizgorgeous, in Saturday’s race.

Tizgorgeous is the pick to win due to a strong recent race and past success on Arlington’s main track. The filly by second-crop sire Tizdejavu (whose runners have been aces on grass) was somewhat slow to develop last summer at 2 but won her third start, a Polytrack sprint against four other runners, by more than eight lengths. On dirt last fall at Hawthorne, she was second in the Showtime Deb Stakes and won the Pat Whitworth Illinois Debutante. Her 2015 debut, a closing win over open-company and older foes in a $50,000 non-winners-of-two turf-route claimer, suggested that she has improved at 3.

Scatladybdancing also exits turf-route races and moves from open to statebred-restricted competition. In theory, solid performances in two-turn turf races and one-turn dirt races and her strong pedigree – she’s by Scat Daddy – suggest that a one-turn Polytrack mile would be a good fit. But trainer Terrel Gore, who does well at Hawthorne, has found little success since Arlington began using a synthetic main track in 2008, winning just 10 of 213 starts during the Polytrack era.

Hollarforadollar goes for leading trainer Larry Rivelli and won her only Polytrack start, in allowance company earlier at this meet, in convincing fashion. However, she’s a speed horse with other pace in this race and looks suspect going farther than sprint distances.

Devil’s Rose has only a maiden win to her credit but finished strongly in that six-furlong debut score. She looks capable of second-start improvement at a longer one-turn distance.