Post 12 might not stop Kiss Mine in My Charmer

Kiss Mine has faced more demanding tasks during what clearly has been a breakout year. Kiss Mine was assigned post 12 for the $50,000 My Charmer Stakes on Saturday at Turfway Park, but if the 4-year-old filly runs like she has been, the difficult post just might not matter.

Kiss Mine has won four races and more than $220,000 in eight starts this year, and her connections are hoping she will punctuate her season by capturing the My Charmer, a two-turn race at 1 1/16 miles over Polytrack. Carl Pollard, the longtime board chairman at Churchill Downs Inc., bred and owns Kiss Mine, who will have Greta Kuntzweiler aboard for the first time Saturday.

Trained by Dave Vance, Kiss Mine put together a four-race win streak this summer before finishing a creditable seventh when trying the likes of Proviso and Wasted Tears in the Grade 1 First Lady at Keeneland. She then ran second as the favorite in her most recent race, the Grade 3 Cardinal at Churchill, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of at least 90 for the fifth straight time.

While Kiss Mine has raced strictly on turf this year, it may be instructive to note that her career mark at Turfway is 2 for 2, including an allowance triumph a little more than a year ago.

Kiss Mine is among 14 fillies and mares entered in the 31st My Charmer, although only as many as 12 can start.

Notables among a collectively strong set of opponents include Seniga, a last-out turf-allowance winner at Keeneland; D’Country, a Woodbine shipper with nearly $200,000 in career earnings over synthetic surfaces; Miss Blakely, a last-out winner of a $100,000 race over the Tapeta surface at Presque Isle Downs; Haka, winner of the Grade 3 Doubledogdare over the Polytrack at Keeneland in the spring; and My Baby Baby, beaten just a neck by Kiss Mine when third in the Cardinal last month at Churchill.

The My Charmer, named for the dam of the great Seattle Slew, goes as the ninth of 10 races at the Florence, Ky., track. Two allowances (races 7 and 8) directly precede it on a program that starts at 1:10 p.m. Eastern.