Pessin: Eden Prairie ready to fire in Blushing K. D.
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
Eden Prairie ran three excellent races last season at Fair Grounds, winning the Pago Hop and the Marie Krantz stakes and finishing second in the Bayou Handicap. But in six starts since, she has failed to demonstrate the same kind of form – much less win a race – and the question in the Blushing K. D. Stakes on Thursday at Fair Grounds is whether Eden Prairie is the same filly now that she was a year ago.
Trainer Neil Pessin isn’t expressing any doubts. He thinks Eden Prairie, save one poor run he can’t figure out at Arlington, just hasn’t found the right spots recently. He thinks she has found one Thursday.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 3 Eden Prairie. Trainer Neil Pessin is 13-1-1-1 with a $1.01 ROI over the past five years on turf with Florent Geroux aboard.Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
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“She’s doing really well,” Pessin said. “I’ll be surprised if she doesn’t run one-two.”
Eden Prairie is one of eight entered in this overnight turf-route stakes, which drew a field worthy of something greater than the race’s $50,000 purse. Pessin has a second entrant, Distorted Music, but she and Interest Free are likely scratches if an overnight dirt-route stakes scheduled for Sunday fills when entries are taken Thursday. Pessin said that if the Sunday race fails to fill, Distorted Music will make her turf debut Thursday, but trainer Neil Howard suggested that Interest Free was unlikely to start on turf.
There’s little chance of the Blushing K. D. being rained off the grass. The turf course was so firm and fast-playing that two course records were set last weekend, and there’s no rain forecast before Thursday’s card.
KEY CONTENDERS
Eden Prairie (Last 3 Beyers: 85-80-85)
Those last three Beyers came on dirt or in turf-sprint races (one of which was at Euro-style Kentucky Downs). In turf routes, her last three Beyers are 90, 93, and 93.
Eden Prairie has been especially effective on the Fair Grounds course, compiling a 5-3-1-0 record.
If the race stays on turf, there will be no more than six runners, and only one of them, Kitten’s Queen, has even tactical speed. Eden Prairie will be forwardly placed, Pessin said. “She doesn’t have to have the lead, but if no one wants it, she’ll take it,” he said.
FORMULATOR FACT: Over the last five years at Fair Grounds, Pessin has a strong record of 26-9-2-5 with a $2.86 return on investment with horses priced between 2-1 and 5-1 in turf routes.
Malibu Yankee (Last 3 Beyers: 60-83-84)
Second in her lone Fair Grounds start, she finished last of eight Oct. 12 at Keeneland, her most recent start, but with a specific excuse. “She lost a shoe in the paddock and totally went to pieces when they tried to shoe her,” trainer Tom Amoss said. “We came close to scratching her.”
Class Included (Last 3 Beyers: 76-70-84)
She won the Bayou Handicap in her last start on this course. She has fallen well off form since then, but Gantry, another horse from these connections, rebounded with a turf-allowance win last week after similar apparent slippage.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 2 Flashy Gal. Trainer Wayne Catalano is 20-2-2-3 with a $0.41 ROI over the past five years going dirt to turf in routes in the second start following a layoff.Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 4 Kitten's Queen. Trainer Mike Maker is 59-16-8-8 with a $2.93 ROI over the past year going dirt to turf in routes.Click for more details. – Mike Hogan