Miss Kinderhook has solid tightener behind her

Miss Kinderhook will have more fitness to call on Friday when gut-check time arrives in a first-level allowance route for 2-year-old fillies that tops the Fair Grounds card. She will be making her second two-turn start in the race following a close-up fourth in the $69,000 Happy Ticket at 1 1/16 miles at Louisiana Downs on Sept. 25.

“She was very gritty,” said Rick Jackson, who trains Miss Kinderhook. “She was head to head for the lead and just didn’t want to give it up. She just got plain tired, and the horses that beat her, all three came out of route races. She wasn’t ready to go that far, but it’s the only spot we had to run her in, and she ran awful big. We weren’t training for that race. We were expecting to run her three-quarters and the race didn’t go.”

The mile and 40-yard allowance Friday could produce starters for next month’s $100,000 Silverbulletday. It will go as the fourth race on a 10-race card that drew 84 entries. A field of five is set to start, with the chief threat to Miss Kinderhook being Arlington Park maiden winner Crepe Myrtle.

Miss Kinderhook is a promising sort for the partnership of Jac Mac Stable and Carlton Formby. She is a daughter of Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Pleasantly Perfect, while her dam, Belong to Sea, won the Grade 3 Miss Preakness. Miss Kinderhook took a maiden special weight sprint by more than seven lengths in her second career start Sept. 5, then was beaten just a length in the Happy Ticket. The stakes was run over the closing weekend of the Louisiana Downs meet, and following it Miss Kinderhook was freshened some on a farm, said Jackson.

“She’s progressed forwardly, so I’m expecting her to run big,” he said.

James Graham has the mount on Miss Kinderhook, who will break from the rail Friday.

“She’s pretty quick,” Jackson said. “She should be on the pace or pushing the pace.”

Crepe Myrtle showed more speed than usual in her last start, the $150,000 Jessamine at Keeneland on Oct. 14. She raced about a length off the lead for much of the mile and a sixteenth stakes before finishing sixth to future Grade 2 Golden Rod winner Kathmanblu. Prior to that start, Crepe Myrtle, who is a half-sister to four-time stakes winner Barcola, had won a maiden special weight route at Arlington.

Rosie Napravnik has the mount for John Adger and trainer Michael Stidham.