Love Appeals must overcome wide draw to return to winning ways

With only a minor chance of rain into the weekend, soggy Churchill Downs could get back onto the grass course as soon as Saturday. And if the filly Love Appeals gets back on grass in the Sunday feature, she can get back to the winner’s circle for the first time in 13 months.

Love Appeals is part of an overflow field entered in Sunday’s sixth race, a turf sprint for second-level allowance horses or $80,000 claimers that’s restricted to older fillies and mares. Based in New York, Love Appeals raced on dirt in her lone start this year, finishing a decent third in a Gulfstream allowance race – decent, but not to the turf-sprint form she showed last year.

Love Appeals twice finished third and once was fourth in three turf-sprint stakes in 2023, and in two of them she had tough trips. She and Florent Geroux will have to overcome a wide draw Sunday, and Love Appeals might not want too much give in the ground, but this race lacks anything approaching standouts, and with standard second-start improvement in her 4-year-old season, Love Appeals should clear the condition.

◗ Didia worked six furlongs in 1:14 on Friday at the Keeneland base of trainer Ignacio Correas and remains on course for the $750,000 New York Stakes on June 7 at Saratoga. Didia raced at a one-mile distance short of her best and ran over a turf course wetter than she prefers but still finished a creditable third last month in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley. The mare already has packed four workouts into May, breezing six days apart in her last two drills, and should be a major factor in the 1 3/16-mile New York.

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