Rock and Glory stands out in Madamoiselle

Rock and Glory is clearly the horse to beat and will be a very short price to win the $50,000 Madamoiselle Handicap at Northlands Park on Friday. The 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares drew six horses, none more interesting than Fingers Crossed, who races for one of the most successful owners in horse racing, Godolphin Racing LLC.

Northlands Park seems like one of the last places a horse owned by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum would be competing. After all, Godolphin horses usually race in the major centers of the horse-racing world. Northlands is a five-furlong oval where most of the stakes have lost their designation as black-type races. Among major venues, it also is the northernmost track in North America.

The Madamoiselle still retains its black-type status, however, and a win would enhance the broodmare value of Fingers Crossed. Her dam, Ruth E, is by A.P. Indy and is out of Ajina, who was a multiple Grade 1 winner with $1.3 million in earnings.

“We’re probably going to breed her next year, and it would be nice to get some black type for her,” said trainer Eoin Harty. “She’s fit and happy, so hopefully she’ll run a good race.”

Fingers Crossed is coming off a rough trip going seven furlongs on Polytrack in a $40,000 optional claimer at Arlington Park on May 24. Both of her wins came on turf, and she went unplaced in two tries on dirt. She will need to improve if she is going to beat Rock and Glory, the 1-2 morning-line favorite.

Rock and Glory, trained by Robertino Diodoro, also races for a prominent owner in the United States, Mercedes Stable, and is deserving of the 125-pound impost she has been assigned. In two starts at Northlands, she was in hand while trouncing her opponents in the $53,000 Wild Rose on May 16 and the $51,000 John Patrick on June 12.

KEY CONTENDERS

Rock and Glory (Last 3 Beyers: 78-65-37)

The 7-year-old mare stands out and won’t have any trouble handling the distance at which she earned her career-best 91 Beyer Speed Figure.

DRF FORMULATOR FACT: Over the past five years in non-graded stakes at Northlands, jockey Rico Walcott and Diodoro have won at a 30 percent clip.

Fingers Crossed (Last 3 Beyers: 68-70-74)

Hard to see any of them beating Rock and Glory, but if she can post similar Beyers to the ones she earned on turf, she could round out the exacta.