S W Aly'svalentine takes to turf

S W Aly'svalentine had been strictly a dirt horse through the first 19 races of her career, winning eight races, including a pair of stakes restricted to Pennsylvania-breds earlier this season.

A 4-year-old filly trained by Amy Randolph, S W Aly'svalentine proved to be equally adept sprinting on turf, upsetting the 9-5 favorite, Gilded Gold, and six other fillies and mares in Saturday's $100,000 Kattegat's Pride Stakes at Laurel Park.

Ridden by her regular jockey, Vladimir Diaz, S W Aly'svalentine ($24.40) came from off the pace to overtake Gilded Gold in deep stretch and prevailed by 1 1/2 lengths over Deliver the Roses, who rallied through traffic to get second after breaking a step slow out of the gate. Gilded Gold, last year's winner of this stakes, weakened to finish third.

The winning time for five furlongs on a course rated good was 58.33 seconds.

John Randolph, an assistant to his wife, explained that there was little reason to tinker with S W Aly'svalentine and try something new.

"She was so good on the dirt that we really didn't want to take any chances," Randolph said. "But it's hard to find races this late in the year, so when this race came up we decided to go ahead and give her a shot on the grass. She's gone everywhere from a mile to five-eighths of a mile, and she tries every time she goes out."