Sprint looks like a stakes

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The two-time stakes winner Foxy Danseur has not been able to win a graded stakes - at least not yet. Her form does make her a prime candidate to win Thursday's seventh race at Hollywood Park.

Already this year, Foxy Danseur has won an allowance race at Santa Anita in February and finished second in two stakes - the Honest Lady in March and the Grade 3 Las Flores Handicap last month.

Thursday's race, a $60,000 allowance race over 6 1/2 furlongs, is seen by trainer Christopher Paasch as a prep for another graded stakes this spring or summer.

"I think she's just one notch below Indian Blessing," Paasch said, referring to the champion female sprinter of 2008. "I think she's a Grade 2- or Grade 3-type of filly.

"This is her home track and she's comfortable here. We'll get a race into her and we'll have to look around the country."

Foxy Danseur lost the Honest Lady and Las Flores to Sweet August Moon. In both races, Foxy Danseur came from off the pace and was second best.

"The first time the other filly kind of surprised the way she came from way back," Paasch said. "The last time I think she showed she's a better filly than ours."

The competition is tough on Thursday as well. The field also includes Golden Doc A, winner of the Grade 1 Las Virgenes Stakes last year; Ashley's Kitty, who won last season's Desert Stormer Handicap; and the multiple stakes winner Coco Belle. The other starters are She's Cheeky, who was third in the Grade 1 Santa Monica Handicap in January, and Belliflore, who was group-stakes-placed in France last year.

Golden Doc A is making the quickest turnaround, having finished last of six in the B. Thoughtful Stakes for statebred females here on April 25, her first start of the year. Golden Doc A finished 3 3/4 lengths behind Waveline but made up more than 11 lengths in the final three furlongs.

Coco Belle is winless in six starts since the CERF Handicap at Del Mar last summer. She was fourth in the Las Flores Handicap. Trainer John Sadler is hoping that Coco Belle's speed can work in her favor on Hollywood Park's Cushion Track synthetic surface.

"If it's quick, she'll like this track," Sadler said. "She needs it fast."