Rescheduled Vivacious among three stakes on Friday card
Distinctive Flower has had to wait a week to defend her victory from last year in the $75,000 Vivacious Handicap for Ohio-bred fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles on the turf. The race was part of the second half of last Friday’s Belterra Park card, which was canceled due to bad weather.
Circumstances seem to have worked out favorably for Distinctive Flower in the re-drawn Vivacious, now one of three stakes on Friday’s card at Belterra.
The field of nine for the second take of the Vivacious is smaller than the original 12, and does not include the original morning-line favorite, Best of Ohio winner Moonlit Mission, who was coming off two victories. Distinctive Flower still faces a salty field, including reigning Best of Ohio Distaff winner Drillit, but she has drawn the rail here, ideal for Rafael Mojica Jr. to use her speed. She drew the outside post on the original card.
Distinctive Flower won last year’s Vivacious over Friday rivals Grizabella (fourth), Cali Dream (sixth), and Drillit (seventh). The mare has won both her starts this year, both at Belterra for trainer Larry Smith. She was promoted from second to first on the disqualification of Wine Me Up Baby in a six-furlong allowance on May 7, and won a handicap at 1 1/16 miles on turf on June 17.
Drillit won the John W. Galbreath Stakes for 2-year-old fillies on the annual fall Best of Ohio card in 2018, and the Distaff last year. A five-time stakes winner, Drillit has been second in all three of her outings this year, most recently behind reigning statebred horse of the year Esplanande in the Best of Ohio Diana Stakes and then to Moonlit Mission in the J. William Petro Memorial. Drillit’s only start on turf was her seventh-place finish in the 2020 Vivacious.
Multiple stakes winner Circus Rings was third to Drillit in last year’s Best of Ohio Distaff and has never run on turf.
This field also includes stakes winners Cali Dream, Grizabella, and Valley of Mo’ara. Grizabella won the Miss Southern Ohio at 1 1/16 miles on turf at Belterra last year.
The partnership of WinStar Farm and Blazing Meadows Farm sends out four of the eight entrants in the $75,000 Hoover Stakes for statebred juveniles going 5 1/2 furlongs. They are all trained by Tim Hamm, who breeds and owns horses as Blazing Meadows Farm, and they are coupled in the wagering.
WinStar and Blazing Meadows have had great success breeding mares to Kentucky stallions, typically young stallions standing at WinStar, and then shipping them back to Ohio to foal. Recent examples of their success with this model include Esplanande, who won the 2020 Hoover.
All four members of the entry are coming off a maiden win, with Corner Office perhaps having the best chance in the Hoover.
Corner Office was bumped at the start and finished seventh in his debut, which came going 4 1/2 furlongs at Thistledown. Corner Office dominated maidens there in his second outing, rolling by 8 1/4 lengths going 5 1/2 furlongs on June 17. He earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 50, the best in this field.
Stablemate Condemnation was second to Corner Office before winning his next outing. Rounding out the entry are Mutiny and Tantrum.
Last of the trio of Friday stakes is the $75,000 Buckeye Native, for state-accredited 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/16 miles on the turf. Authentic Cowtown is the morning-line favorite off back-to-back victories in the George Lewis Memorial Stakes and an allowance at Thistledown. He won the Horizon Stakes on the Belterra turf last summer.
Belterra’s nine-race card has a first post of 12:35 p.m., with the Vivacious, Hoover, and Buckeye Native carded as races 5, 7, and 8. At 11:45 a.m., Daily Racing Form’s Marty McGee and track announcer Ed Meyer will present an on-site handicapping seminar.