R Free Roll looks quickest in U Can Do It Handicap

R Free Roll appears to be the controlling speed in the $65,000 U Can Do It Handicap, a six-furlong race for fillies and mares at Calder on Saturday in which Centrique could start as a slight favorite. The horses are co-highweights in the first of four stakes on the card, with the $65,000 Leave Me Alone serving as the 3-year-old debut of Florida Stallion Stakes heroine Scandalous Act. The races are designed to produce starters for the annual Summit of Speed.

But the status of that program, led by the Grade 1 Princess Rooney, is uncertain due to dates negotiations between Calder and Gulfstream Park, with Calder not expected to race this July, the traditional time slot of the Summit of Speed.

“It’s been a great thing for Calder, the Summit of Speed, and I hope Gulfstream takes it over,” said Kirk Ziadie, who trains R Free Roll.

R Free Roll, weighted at 119 pounds, is back home at Calder after winning the $90,000 Hollywood Beach at six furlongs at Gulfstream on April 12. She is part of a nine-horse field that aside from Centrique, the third-place finisher in the Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie in February, also includes the stakes winner Salamera. R Free Roll is 4 for 7 at Calder and, since the Hollywood Beach, has worked a bullet half-mile in 46 seconds in preparation for the U Can Do It.

“I know this filly is very fast, and I don’t see anything in the race that has her speed,” Ziadie said. “This is her stepping-stone for the Princess Rooney, which is [traditionally] in about five to six weeks.”

R Free Roll, whose best Beyer Speed Figures have come at Calder, will break from post 4 under the meet’s leading rider, Edgard Zayas.

“This is her track,” said Ziadie, who trains the multiple stakes winner for Averill Racing and Silver Oak Stable. “She loves it more than any other track.”

Centrique is charged with running down R Free Roll on the cutback from the seven-furlong Inside Information at Gulfstream, a Grade 2 race in which she was favored March 22. She finished fifth after having trouble at the start.

Centrique owns a series of strong Beyers and, aside from being a winner at Calder, was seventh in last year’s Princess Rooney. Eduardo Nunez has the mount for Miller Racing and trainer Marty Wolfson.

Breeders’ Cup filly returns

Scandalous Act, who last year swept the fillies’ division of the Florida Stallion Stakes, will be making her first start since the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies in the Leave Me Alone. She is part of an 11-horse field in the six-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies. Others set to start include Calder Oaks runner-up Florida Sun and sprint stakes winner Flutterby.

Scandalous Act was sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies after a Calder season in which she won the Desert Vixen, Susan’s Girl, and My Dear Girl. She came off Lasix for the Juvenile Fillies, which was Breeders’ Cup policy for horses in last year’s 2-year-old stakes. Scandalous Act shows some forward works for her return. Eduardo Nunez has the mount for Gilbert Campbell and trainer Kathleen O’Connell.

◗ Dad’z Laugh, who popped a career-high Beyer of 100 last out when he won the $90,000 Big Drama at Gulfstream, could go favored over the win-streaking Mr. Baker in the $65,000 Ponche Handicap, a six-furlong race for 3-year-olds and up that has in the past produced starters for the Grade 2 Smile Sprint during the Summit of Speed.

◗ Elusive Blueboy, who was fifth in the Big Drama, gets the chance to return to straight 3-year-olds in the $65,000 Unbridled, also at six furlongs. Earlier in his career, he was a stakes winner at Calder.