Pace battle sets up Liz on Polk Street

STICKNEY, Ill. - Liz on Polk Street has not quite gotten over the hump separating stakes horses from allowance horses, but if placed in the right conditioned race, the filly fires. Fourth and seventh in her two ventures into stakes company, Liz on Polk Street has compiled a 7-4-1-2 record in one maiden race and six subsequent conditioned allowance tries, and Tuesday at Hawthorne, in the featured fourth race, Liz on Polk Street goes in a fourth-level allowance. Circle her number.

Bred and owned by Frank Calabrese, Liz on Polk Street is an A.P. Indy filly out of Calabrese's Grade 1-winning mare Silver Maiden. She started her career late in 2003, winning her debut over this Hawthorne surface, but suffering a leg injury that kept her out of action until last summer. Beaten in her comeback, Liz on Polk Street won her second start of the summer by three lengths and won twice early in the Fair Grounds meet. She was third in a route race there Jan. 7 (a distance of ground seems to be beyond her scope), and barely picked up her feet when sent to Santa Anita for the Grade 3 Las Flores on Feb. 27.

Wesley Ward was training Liz on Polk Street in south Florida when she went to the Las Flores, but Wayne Catalano, who knows her best, has the filly back now.

She worked a moderate half-mile April 17 at Hawthorne, but that should be enough.

"She looks good, she's training good, but she's kind of light, like usual," Catalano said Saturday.

Catalano treats this type of filly with kid gloves. Do less in the morning, and you will get more in the afternoon.

Tuesday, with Shane Laviolette named to ride, Liz on Polk Street will need to work out a trip from the rail. She doesn't have the speed to clear fast horses like Pass the Pepper, who won a race at this class level April 3 and can win again if she shakes loose on the front end. But Rich City Girl, who took back the last time she faced Pass the Pepper, might apply pace pressure this time from her outside draw, which could set the table for another Liz on Polk Street victory.