Plenty of stakes potential among the fillies in Friday allowance

NEW ORLEANS – Call it the Rachel Alexandra Lite, this Fair Grounds first-level dirt-route allowance race for 3-year-old fillies on the Friday card.

Saturday’s Rachel Alexandra Stakes includes Eclipse Award winner British Idiom as well as multiple stakes winner Finite, and horsemen with talented fillies not quite up to that challenge were presented an alternative in Friday’s seventh race, which is carded for 1 1/16 miles, open to $50,000 claimers, and attracted six entrants.

Portrait, in fact, came close to being entered in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes, but since British Idiom lives right down trainer Brad Cox’s shed row and Portrait has been found slightly wanting in a pair of dirt-route stakes, Cox let discretion be the better part of valor and opted for Friday over Saturday. Cox also entered Evil Lyn, but she, frankly, looks a cut below the best in here and more likely than not is ballast that helped keep this race afloat when entries were taken Feb. 7. The other five in Friday’s race all appear to at least have a puncher’s chance.

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Portrait debuted on Ellis Park turf and didn’t show a lot but came back second time out racing in a seven-furlong sprint with blinkers added and romped by 12 lengths. Cox said he was enthused with Portrait’s training before she finished a well-beaten third as the 13-10 favorite in the Pocahontas Stakes last September at Churchill Downs and fourth at 3-1 last month in the Silverbulletday Stakes at Fair Grounds, a race in which she loomed at the quarter pole before losing momentum late. Portrait has the body type of a route horse but, at least in stakes company, has looked distance challenged. She continues to train well, and Cox isn’t quite sure what to expect at this point.

“She’s a tough horse to figure out,” he said.

Alta’s Award and Charming Lady are last-start maiden winners who come to this race from different angles. Charming Lady won her debut sprinting on Jan. 18, while Alta’s Award posted an encouraging debut sprint loss before graduating second out in a Jan. 17 route race here. Alta’s Award got a solid 78 Beyer Speed Figure and, other than a late, unneeded lead change, looked good winning, but she did get a perfect trip pressing a modest pace in a short field.

Charming Lady got away slowly in her debut and found herself trapped inside and behind horses on a slow pace last month. James Graham finally got her into the clear in the homestretch, and Charming Lady powered home to win going away, and while the time, 1:10.81 on a fast-playing surface, yielded only a 71 Beyer, Charming Lady has more potential than the speed figure alone.

“We liked her going into the first race, and I think the way she ran certainly made people take notice,” trainer Tom Amoss said. “Like a lot of horses this time of year, we want to see how she can do going farther.”

Charming Lady is by Ghostzapper, which bodes well for routes, but though she has plenty of stamina deeper down in her dam’s side, the dam herself, I’m Mom’s Favorite, was a sprinter, as were Charming Lady’s two siblings to race, D J’s Favorite and Nicholesluckycharm.

She Can’t Sing was only seventh in the Silverbulletday but has a maiden dirt-route win last fall at Keeneland that could make her competitive. Halama won promisingly enough in her career debut but flopped in the slop in her only other start, a Dec. 21 route allowance.

◗ Race 8, a second-level turf mile allowance with a $40,000 claiming option, offers the highest-class fare on the card and is a brain-buster of a handicapping puzzle. The tepid pick, on what might be a key class drop, is Secretary at War, who if things break right can get a favorable trip under Florent Geroux one path off the rail and behind an outside pace-presser.