Pistols Drawn shaky favorite in Purple Violet
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Pistols Drawn’s last-start win over Illinois-bred 3-year-old fillies in the Pretty Jenny Stakes at Hawthorne was dominant, but her Polytrack form at Arlington last summer was equally dismal, and the racing-surface question is like an asterisk next to her 2-1 morning-line odds in the $100,000 Purple Violet Stakes on Saturday at Arlington.
Pistols Drawn is one of nine fillies in the Purple Violet, a one-turn Polytrack mile, and one of six without synthetic-surface success, and her two starts here last summer were abject failures, a ninth by 13 lengths and an eighth by 26. Those dismal showings came before Carlos Silva, the former jockey who trains the filly for owner-breeder Richard and Gail Radke’s Asiel Stable, began racing Pistols Drawn in blinkers.
Perhaps it was a general unsuitability to racing at the time, rather than the track surface itself, that suppressed the talent Pistols Drawn has since shown, which peaked with a 6 1/4-length Pretty Jenny romp, but handicappers must decide at what price they are willing to make that assumption.
The speedy Richies Sweetheart is the Polytrack specialist in the race, and her three wins from four Arlington main-track starts include a May 10 romp in an Illinois-bred allowance race. It’s not the step up in class Saturday that’s a concern so much as the stretch from sprints to a one-mile distance, which is going to severely tax Richies Sweetheart’s stamina.
Another last-start Polytrack sprint winner, Countess Cashmere, has a better chance of making the distance. Countess Cashmere, who has run well in all three of her races, rallied steadily to win a maiden race over the promising Team Block filly Ready for Summer on May 17, and she might appreciate the extra two furlongs she gets Saturday. Trainer Tom Swearingen, for what it’s worth, won the male counterpart to the Purple Violet, the Springfield, with I Got It All last weekend.
Cabana, the race’s lone ship-in, will have a strong chance if she can handle the one-turn trip and a synthetic surface. Trained by Donnie Von Hemel, Cabana has run well in slop, on fast dirt, and on turf, but her last six starts have come in two-turn trips, and Cabana is a mystery on Polytrack.