Ramseys go for juvenile sweep in La Senorita, El Joven

Ken and Sarah Ramsey will be out to sweep Retama Park’s premier races for 2-year-olds for an unprecedented third time Saturday night. Right On Kitten has invaded the San Antonio-area track for the $100,000 La Senorita Stakes, while Crown the Kitten looks like a reliable favorite in the $100,000 El Joven Stakes.

Both races will be run at a mile on turf and are being held about a month earlier this year to position them as potential steppingstones to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf and Juvenile Fillies Turf. In addition, each race received a purse boost of $25,000.

The Ramseys accounted for the Retama double in 2009 with Kera’s Kitten and Lisa’s Kitten and again in 2012 with Admiral Kitten, an eventual Grade 1 winner, and Kitten’s Dumplings. The four horses were sired by the turf champion Kitten’s Joy, and the same is true of their starters Saturday. Trainer Mike Maker sent out both sets of Ramsey winners in 2009 and 2012, and he again will be invading from Kentucky, this time with Right On Kitten.

“Obviously, we’ve got a lot of Kitten’s Joys from Mr. Ramsey, and we’ve got to split them up,” Maker said of regularly targeting the program at Retama.

La Senorita (race 8)

Key contenders

Right On Kitten (Last Beyer: 57)

* January foal was a $6,000 supplemental entry into the La Senorita following a 3 1/4-length maiden special weight win over 7 1/2 furlongs on turf Sept. 9 at Indiana Grand.

“She’s only run one race, and she won impressively,” Maker said. “I think she’ll fit well.”

* Right On Kitten, the probable favorite, will break from post 4 in the field of five.

“She can place herself anywhere,” Maker said. “She’ll probably maintain a stalking position. That would be my guess.”

* Rafael Hernandez, who won last weekend’s Grade 3 Grey Stakes at Woodbine aboard the Maker-trained International Star, has the mount on Right On Kitten.

Sister Shades (Last 3 Beyers: 42-0-40)

* She breaks from the rail, just as she did in her last start, a maiden special weight turf route at Retama, where she won in wire-to-wire fashion.

* She is a half-sister to Got Shades, a two-time stakes winner on turf at 2 who also ran a troubled fifth in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.

* Dakota Wood has the mount for trainer Danny Pish, who also sends out the leading contender T C B Kiwi’s.

El Joven (race 6)

Key contenders

Crown the Kitten (Last 2 Beyers: 64-59)

* Trained by Wesley Ward, he debuted at Belmont Park and ran second in a turf sprint won by Sunset Glow, who has since captured both the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante and Grade 2 Sorrento.

* He was a $6,000 supplement to the El Joven following a two-length maiden special weight win in his most recent outing Sept. 24 at Kentucky Downs.

* Hernandez has the mount from post 5 in the field of six.

Infiltration (Last Beyer: 53)

* He’s a maiden but missed by a half-length in his debut in a Retama turf route to Cocaptain, who is a $6,000 supplemental entry to the El Joven.

* Infiltration is from the first crop of the Dynaformer stallion Temple City, who got a Grade 2 winner this summer when Startup Nation captured the With Anticipation Stakes on turf at Saratoga.

* Infiltration is half-brother to King Coral, a five-time winner who has placed in five stakes.

Smokinbigcigars (Last 3 Beyers: 45-31-52)

* He’s still a maiden but will be making his turf debut. His sire, Big Brown, gets 12 percent winners from his first-time turfers, while a half-sibling, Absolute Magic, placed in a pair of Group 3 turf races in France.