It might have taken a few weeks of consideration, but Lonesome Road will make his long-awaited stakes debut in the $150,000 Boston Handicap at Colonial Downs on Friday. The gelding has been one to watch on the Mid-Atlantic circuit since his maiden victory at the very end of last year. “We took some time and freshened up a little bit over these bitter, cold winter months and he was able to train almost uninterrupted,” trainer Michael Trombetta said. “We’ve pointed towards this and trained toward it.” Originally raced on turf at Colonial last year, Lonesome Road did not realize his potential until Trombetta switched him to dirt at Laurel Park. The Virginia-bred won a maiden special weight by 8 1/2 lengths on Dec. 26 and came right back to win an allowance by 6 1/4 lengths the following month. For his last performance, Lonesome Road received a 98 Beyer Speed Figure, tied for the highest in the Boston field of seven Virginia-restricted runners. Illuminare, a 5-year-old trained by Todd Pletcher, earned the same figure at Aqueduct in November of 2024, but he has since lost two races by a combined 46 1/2 lengths. Trombetta originally considered both Lonesome Road and stablemate Maclean’s Rook for the Boston, as well as the $100,000 Royal New Kent on Saturday. In the end, the trainer gave Lonesome Road the edge at seven furlongs, while Maclean’s Rook will run in a 1 1/16-mile allowance Saturday. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Chipotle, a 4-year-old gelding trained by Mike Gorham, will try another race at this level after running a half-length behind Point Dume in the $100,000 Fire Plug at Laurel Park in January. That rival came back to defeat a much stronger field in the $200,000 General George. “He’s matured really good,” Gorham said of Chipotle. “As a 2-year old, he was a good horse, but he’s just getting better all the time.” Chipotle settled off the pace last time out, but Lonesome Road and other front-running types may be left to chase Gorham’s gelding Friday. Stellar Wind Handicap Butch Reid said he expects a strong performance from Carmelina in the $100,000 Stellar Wind Handicap at Colonial on Friday. The trainer’s word is one of the few hints bettors will receive about the mare coming off a layoff of nearly six months. “She ships well, for one thing,” Reid said. “We’ve run her all over the place on the East Coast and she’s done well every time, and she really seemed to like that racetrack down there.” Though she has done most of her damage at Parx Racing, both of Carmelina’s previous visits to Virginia resulted in victories. As a juvenile in 2023, she made her third career start at Colonial and won her first stakes in the $100,000 Keswick. The following year, she returned to win the $100,000 Penny Chenery with an 82 Beyer Speed Figure, the best of her career to that point. The Pennsylvania-bred mare didn’t travel much in 2025, winning 3 of 4 starts at Parx and finishing a distant seventh in the Grade 2 Honorable Miss at Saratoga. She made her last start in September, running sixth at 4-5 odds in the $150,000 Liberty Bell. “She had a long hard year, so we wanted to give her a break over the winter when the tracks aren’t quite so good,” Reid said. “She had a nice couple months break and we got her back and she’s training really well coming up to this race.” If all is right, few in the field of eight Virginia-restricted fillies and mares will feasibly challenge Carmelina at six furlongs. The layoff could leave the 9-5 morning-line favorite vulnerable, however, and trainer Brittany Russell is doubling her chances with a pair of 4-year-old fillies. Shkhara Fire, claimed for $40,000 in December, could improve in her first start for Russell, but the trainer’s best hopes seem to lie with Conquerthosewecan. The filly has come up short in three stakes attempts, but her last victory was in a Colonial allowance last summer, when she earned a career-best 82 Beyer Speed Figure. “She’s a beautiful filly,” Russell said. “Some question marks along the line for her, but she ran a really big race at Colonial when she won down there. I’m hoping to get her back on a surface that she did well on, hoping that it works for her because she’s doing great. She deserves to win a race like that.” Sporting Lady, a 4-year-old filly trained by Keri Brion, finished third in the $100,000 Nelson Menard Memorial at Fair Grounds on Jan. 10 after the race was taken off the turf. Though she remains winless in five career starts on dirt, Brion will keep her on the surface in her return to Colonial. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.