My Baby Baby, Scolara rematch

There are nine 3-year-old fillies entered in the Pago Hop Stakes on Saturday at Fair Grounds, and several of them look like they can run. But the Pago Hop, a grass race at about one mile, could boil down to the two-three finishers in the Grade 2 Mrs. Revere, a turf stakes last month at Churchill.

Acoma, who won the Mrs. Revere, won't join trainer David Carroll at Fair Grounds until sometime next year, but My Baby Baby, second in that race, has been shipped to New Orleans for the Pago Hop by trainer Ken McPeek and just happens to be stabled in Carroll's barn this week. In the Mrs. Revere, My Baby Baby had the lead in midstretch before being passed by Acoma, but she held second over closing Scolara, who will take another shot in the $60,000 Pago Hop.

My Baby Baby, McPeek said Thursday, will start Saturday, and then will be turned out to await a spring campaign. Scolara, on the other hand, already was stabled with trainer Bill Mott's Fair Grounds string, and Mott has no intention of halting her campaign.

"She was pretty lightly raced this year," Mott said. "She had her break during the summer."

My Baby Baby has made 11 starts to Scolara's eight and was farther along than in her autumn form cycle for the Mrs. Revere than Scolara. Mott has trained other members of Scolara's family and said those horses tended to get better with age.

"There's no reason she can't keep improving," Mott said. "She's a nice, big filly. She's got some substance."

Scolara also has a potent finishing kick at her best, and if her trajectory is favorable at this point in the year, she might run down My Baby Baby in the long Fair Grounds stretch. In fact, Scolara has beaten My Baby Baby before, finishing a neck and a nose in front of My Baby Baby in an entry-level allowance race last spring at Keeneland.

Robby Albarado rides My Baby Baby; Patrick Valenzueala, who has been getting all of Mott's stakes business at Fair Grounds, will get a leg up on Scolara for the first time.

Mizzcan'tbewrong and Love to Tell should supply early pace. The list of second-tier contenders includes Rose of Killarney and High Surf. Rose of Killarney won an entry-level allowance race over the Fair Grounds course by four lengths last month; High Surf cleared the same condition at Churchill by one length in her grass debut.