Pletcher's got two aces, and more

MIAMI - Be it quantity or quality, trainer Todd Pletcher appears to have most of the bases covered for Saturday's $40,000 Princess Mora Stakes at Calder.

Pletcher has four of the 12 fillies and mares entered in the body of the 1 1/8-mile overnight turf stakes, including Beebe Lake and Krasnaya, the two likely favorites. The four Pletcher runners will all go off as separate betting interests.

Beebe Lake and Krasnaya return on just two weeks' rest after competing in different divisions of the Soft Parade Stakes on Nov. 6. Beebe Lake won the second and slower split, rallying to a 1 1/4-length victory over Love Sting. Krasnaya finished second behind local division leader Formal Miss in the opening and faster half of the Soft Parade while earning a career-high 89 Beyer Speed Figure. Beebe Lake received an 86 Beyer for her victory.

In addition to the short turnaround, Beebe Lake and Krasnaya are poorly drawn in the Princess Mora. Barring scratches, Krasnaya will begin from post 11 and Beebe Lake will begin from post 12.

Both 4, Beebe Lake and Krasnaya are the older and more accomplished members of the Pletcher quartet, but 3-year-old fillies Path of Thunder and Honey Ryder should not be discounted. Path of Thunder has captured 2 of 7 career starts and has finished off the board only once, when trying to stay 1 1/2 miles after setting a contested pace at Keeneland on Oct. 8. Honey Ryder is also consistent and has returned from a summer freshening to post the two best Beyer Figures of her career. She should be ready for an even better effort making the third start of her form cycle in the Princess Mora.

Among those with the best chance of upsetting the Pletcher parade are Spring Season and Music Way.

Spring Season ships in from Kentucky for trainer Jonathan Sheppard off a 1 1/4-length victory in a third-level allowance going a mile. The win was the third in the last four starts for Spring Season, whose lone drawback may be her lack of a race beyond 1 1/16 miles on the flat.

Music Way proved no match for Spring Season when they met at Saratoga on Aug. 23, but she was making her first start in nearly four months and was parked wide the entire trip after breaking from the outside post. Trained by Christophe Clement, Music Way rebounded to win a second-level allowance race at Delaware and is the most accomplished member of the field at 1 1/8 miles.