New Year's Eve, White Frost battle in wide-open Ladies Turf

New Year’s Eve or White Frost will be favored in the Grade 3, $1 million Ladies Turf on Saturday at Kentucky Downs, but shorter prices do not always equate to large advantages, and this seven-runner field is wide open.

New Year’s Eve swept to victory in the Ellis Park stakes prep for this race with a clean wide run. It was a nice win, but her first in 15 months, and New Year’s Eve probably hit a mark a little below her best finishing fourth in the Dueling Grounds Oaks a year ago, her lone Kentucky Downs race. A good turf course might not have been especially to her liking that day.

White Frost has put together a frustrating campaign for Gainesway Stable and Bill Mott. Since winning a Gulfstream Park allowance race in January, her first start following a 14-month layoff, White Frost has four seconds and a third in stakes races. She was very unlucky in the Honey Fox at Gulfstream, ran into top-class In Italian in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley, but has failed to break through in three subsequent stakes. One wonders if White Frost, who makes her Kentucky Downs debut, is actively participating in her own tough luck.

The Ladies Turf is contested over one mile but plays longer than that, owing to a long run-up and the testing nature of the Kentucky Downs course. All entrants are eligible for the $400,000 portion of the purse available only to Kentucky-breds.

Rail-drawn Regal Realm and Haughty from post 2 should go to the lead, though neither is anything like a runaway speed horse, and the Ladies Turf should develop at a modest tempo. White Frost and Querobin Dourada figure to track the leaders, and Qureobin Dourada has a better chance than her 15-1 morning line. She was outkicked at Ellis by New Year’s Eve, finishing fourth, but was slightly short of room in midstretch and has an improving form pattern.

Sparkle Blue, New Year’s Eve, and Henrietta Topham will race from behind, and Henrietta Topham has a strong chance to outrun her odds. She’s the only active racehorse trained by Geoff Mulcahy at the Training Center outside Lexington, but there, Mulcahey legs up some 70 to 80 2-year-olds annually for high-profile outfits like Godolphin. Mulcahy phased out of standard racehorse training for the 2-year-old gig, but had become close to Mike and Liz Burns, who campaign Henrietta Topham under the nom de course Cambus-Kenneth Farm.

“They really wanted me to keep training her, and I agreed. She’s the last one,” Mulcahy said.

Five-year-old Henrietta Topham wants the Kentucky Downs turf dry on Saturday. Over courses with some give in the ground at Horseshoe Indianapolis in July, at Keeneland in April, and at Woodbine last October, Henrietta Topham failed to show her best, Mulcahy points out. On firmer footing, she nearly landed a rich stakes last fall at Keeneland and won the Mint Julep over White Frost on June 4. Henrietta Topham finished a strong fourth in a tougher renewal of this race a year ago and exits a no-hope trip at Ellis Park, where she was shuffled back to last on the far turn and then lacked racing room in the homestretch.

“She’s been training really well and I’m looking forward to running her,” Mulcahy said.

Of course, he is. One horse for one million.

Ladies Marathon

It has been a family affair getting Personal Best ready for the $1 million Ladies Marathon, third race on the rich Kentucky Downs program Saturday.

On Sept. 1 at Saratoga, Personal Best worked five furlongs on the turf training track. She breezed in company with her 3-year-old half-sister Capture the Flag. Jose Ortiz rode Capture the Flag and his brother, Irad Ortiz Jr., was aboard Personal Best.

Irad Ortiz has the mount Saturday in a race that long has been the goal for Personal Best, a Joseph Allen homebred by Tapit out of War Flag. The Ladies Marathon is carded for 1 5/16 miles, one circuit around the course; accounting for a long run-up, the actual distance is more like 1 3/8 miles. That’s fine for Personal Best, who won a maiden race at this distance last season at Kentucky Downs by nearly four lengths and who landed the Grade 3 La Prevoyante at 1 1/2 miles this past winter. Personal Best ran just as well finishing second to Grade 1-class Amazing Grace in the Orchid on April 1, then was below her best racing over a wet Keeneland course in April, where she made the lead in a paceless renewal of the Bewitch Stakes and faded to third.

McGaughey freshened the filly and ran her in the 1 1/8-mile Matchmaker on July 22 at Monmouth as a prep for the Ladies Marathon. Personal Best pulled harder than ideal during the early and middle stages and could only finish fifth.

“I did want to get a race into her because I knew where this one was, but I was little disappointed she didn’t finish better,” McGaughey said.

Personal Best didn’t hit the line that hard, but she did gallop out in front of the Matchmaker field. McGaughey said she’s worked well since, and Personal Best could be ready for a personal best.

Glenall is a longshot in this six-horse field, and Lady Rockstar might be just a half-notch below the top contenders, leaving Vergara, Transient, and Sinfiltre as the threats to Personal Best.

Personal Best twice beat Transient earlier this year, while Sinfiltre appeared to benefit cutting back from 1 1/2-mile races to middle distances her last two starts. Vergara narrowly won the Dueling Grounds Oaks at this trip a year ago, and though she has only a third-place finish from three 2023 starts, she should race competitively for jockey Joel Rosario and trainer Graham Motion.