No Fault of Mine cuts back sharply in distance
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Trainer Chris Block knows that No Fault of Mine, the runner-up in the Grade 2 Golden Rod Stakes in 2014, has talent, but he isn’t quite sure what the 4-year-old filly’s best game is just yet. The featured ninth race at Tampa Bay Downs on Wednesday should help determine the filly’s path forward.
Though No Fault of Mine has run around two turns in three of her five starts, she’ll return to sprinting Wednesday in a six-furlong, no-conditions allowance that is also open to $100,000 claimers and drew a field of eight fillies and mares ages 4 and up and offers a $28,000 purse. It will be the first start for No Fault of Mine since she finished sixth while going 1 1/8 miles in the Grade 2 Falls City Handicap at Churchill Downs in November.
“She didn’t quite make the distance there,” Block said. “We’re cutting her back in distance Wednesday to where she has had some success, trying to get her back on track. I don’t know if she’s a one-run sprinter or if, as she gets more mature with more racing, she’s going to develop into a better two-turn horse. I think the jury is still out.”
No Fault of Mine has been limited to five starts because of physical issues that Block characterized as minor. Her two sprint races on the Polytrack surface at Arlington Park were excellent. She won her seven-furlong career debut by 4 1/2 lengths in September 2014 and took a first-level allowance going 6 1/2 furlongs by 1 1/2 lengths last September. In between those starts, she rallied from far back to be second in the 1 1/16-mile Golden Rod.
“I truly believe she can get two turns. I don’t know how far though,” Block said. “She might be limited there. But when she broke her maiden and when she came back from the layoff, we ran her short, and she responded quite well.”
Race 9
KEY CONTENDERS
No Fault of Mine, by Blame
Last 3 Beyers: (77-79-85)
This Lothenbach Stables Inc. homebred shows three recent works here and will have Ronnie Allen Jr. aboard for the first time.
Milam, by Street Sense
(Last 3 Beyers: 76-83-66)
This stakes-winning mare has been training consistently and impressively at Palm Meadows for her first start in three months and lures top local jockey Antonio Gallardo. Six of her 15 starts have come in graded stakes, and she ran second in the Grade 3 Eight Belles Stakes in 2014, so she owns a class edge over this field.
Sky Gold, by Successful Appeal
(Last 3 Beyers: 55-72-77)
Steps down in class from the Grade 3 Sugar Swirl and has raced exclusively at this distance, earning a pair of Beyers in the low 90s.