Nightly Ritual towers over foes

Nightly Ritual will be hard to beat when she faces 10 rivals in the $100,000 Indiana Stallion filly division at Hoosier Park. The six-furlong race is for 2-year-old fillies that are Indiana-bred and were sired by a registered Indiana stallion.

Trained by Joe Davis, Nightly Ritual is a standout based on Beyer Speed Figures, as her lowest lifetime Beyer is higher than the highest lifetime figure of any of her competitors. The daughter of Crown Ambassador won a maiden race at Hoosier on Sept. 18 by 8 1/2 lengths. She then ran second, beaten a neck, in the City of Anderson on Oct. 11. In her last out, Nov. 8, she ran second, beaten by a neck again in the Miss Indiana.

Both the City of Anderson and Miss Indiana were against a less restricted field than she will face in the Stallion Stakes, as they were for Indiana-breds and the entrants did not have to be sired by Indiana-registered stallions. Nightly Ritual's Beyers range from 41 up to the 63 she earned in the Miss Indiana. The highest Beyer earned by any of her rivals in a 39.

Rafael Hernandez will ride.

Lil Chance looks to be the main competition, winning at first asking by three lengths Nov. 12 for trainer Randy Klopp. She earned a 38 Beyer in that race.

The rescheduled $100,000 Frances Slocum will be run over 1 1/16 miles as the ninth race. It was originally scheduled for last Saturday, but most of the card was canceled because of heavy rain.

Easy Tee comes into the Slocum off a tough loss in the Merrillville on Oct. 24. In that six-furlong event, Easy Tee came from far back to miss by a neck. Trainer Mike Reavis has campaigned Easy Tee at seven different tracks in her seven starts this year. She has been most successful against Indiana-breds in the past year, winning the Slocum last year and the Florence Henderson at Indiana Downs on July 4 of this year. Both races were at 1 1/16 miles, a distance at which Easy Tee is 4 for 6. Orlando Mojica retains the mount.