Nellie Cashman, Appealing Cat get class relief in Lyphard Stakes

A pair of horses who recorded top-three finishes in graded stakes last season but have done little or nothing at all this year take a steep drop in class to face Pennsylvania-bred fillies and mares in Friday’s $75,000 Lyphard Stakes at Penn National. A 1 1/16-mile turf race, the Lyphard goes as race 4 at 7:22 p.m. Eastern.

Nellie Cashman, winner of the Grade 3 Virginia Oaks and runner-up in the Grade 3 Valley View last year, will be making her second start of 2014 in the Lyphard following a dull performance as the 3-2 favorite in a second-level optional $25,000 claimer six weeks ago.

Appealing Cat, second in the Grade 3 Endeavor and third in the Grade 3 Gallorette last year, will be making her first start since finishing fifth as the 8-5 favorite in the Grade 3 All Along last June.

In her only previous race against statebreds, Nellie Cashman easily won her maiden at Penn National last June. She followed up by upsetting the Virginia Oaks at 19-1 and reached the wire first in the Grade 2 Lake Placid at Saratoga, only to be disqualified and placed third for drifting out in the stretch run. Her trainer, Tres Abbott, is off to a 1-for-20 start this season and is just 2 for 18 (11 percent) over the past five years with runners in turf routes making their second start off a long layoff.

Appealing Cat, part of a coupled entry for Augustin Stable with Daylight Ride, finished a close second in the 2012 Malvern Rose at Presque Isle Downs the last time she faced statebreds. Over the past five years, her trainer, Graham Motion, is 0 for 7 with horses returning from a layoff of more than 180 days in non-graded turf route stakes.

Lenape Rim, winner of the 2012 Lyphard and a two-time winner in statebred stakes last year, is also returning from a long layoff. She has been idle since November and won’t have the benefit of a prep, like she did a year ago when she sprinted on dirt as a tune-up for her win in the 1 1/16-mile Wiseman’s Ferry on turf at Penn National.