Stageplay looks formidable in Silverbulletday

NEW ORLEANS – Trainer Steve Asmussen won the Kentucky Oaks with Summerly in 2005 and with Untapable in 2014, and though both horses wintered at Fair Grounds, neither raced in the January stakes for 3-year-old fillies here. But this year, the talented Asmussen filly Stageplay makes her 3-year-old debut Saturday in the $150,000 Silverbulletday Stakes, where she’ll be the heavy favorite to affirm her status as a serious hope for the Fair Grounds Oaks and the Kentucky Oaks.

Seven others are entered, including a potentially worthy foe in Lovable Lyss, who faces her first real test in her stakes debut. And if recent history is a guide, the ungraded Silverbulletday is a real test: Eclipse Award finalist I’m a Chatterbox won last year, while Grade 1 winner Unbridled Forever won in 2014.

Stageplay, a gray filly by Curlin and out of the Valid Expectations mare Stage Stop, raced three times at 2 and clearly was well regarded from the beginning, sent off at 7-5 while making her career debut in a Keeneland 6 1/2-furlong maiden race. There, she was eased off the rail while stalking the pace past the half-mile pole and quickly swooped to the front: “Engulfed foes,” reads the short chart comment.

In the one-turn-mile Rags to Riches at Churchill, Stageplay made a similar turn move and powered home a 1 1/2-length winner, but in her two-turn debut over a sloppy track in the Grade 2 Golden Rod, she chased and chased the pacesetting Carina Mia, drawing nearly abreast past the quarter pole before Carina Mia drew clear, beating Stageplay by 4 1/2 lengths.

Does the late fade at two turns suggest to Asmussen that Stageplay might prefer shorter races? Not at all, he said. Stageplay, to be ridden for the first time by Florent Geroux, has worked three times since shipping into Fair Grounds, and despite a training schedule occasionally interrupted by weather, she’s ready now.

“I think she’s in a good spot,” Asmussen said. “We definitely incurred a little bit of weather right before the holidays. It’s the beginning of the year, and I think she’ll only get better from here.”

One week before the Golden Rod, Lovable Lyss, held back for richer races after a promising near miss in her debut Aug. 29 at Arlington, made her second start in a Fair Grounds maiden sprint. Lovable Lyss, by Big Brown, and a mere $7,000 yearling buy, won easily, and she scarcely appeared to get out of a gallop a month later while setting a strong pace and cruising to a five-length win over first-level allowance foes in her two-turn debut. Cisco Torres eased up well before the finish, saying after dismounting: “She’s the real deal.”

Owner and trainer Hugh Robertson likes Lovable Lyss, too, but takes a more circumspect stance.

“I don’t know how good this filly is because she hasn’t been tried yet,” he said. “We’ll see what happens when they look her in the eye.”

Trainer Bret Calhoun, who won this race six years ago with longshot Jody Slew, has two fillies entered, Delta Princess winner Jet Black Magic and More Than Most, who won Retama’s La Senorita last time out in September.

“Jet Black Magic has more recency,” Calhoun said. “She’s the kind you like this time of year: I don’t think she’s maxxed out yet.”

Annabelle won consecutive one-turn miles at Churchill, and trainer Brad Cox likes her chances of routing. Northwest Tale was overwhelmed by Lovable Lyss last month. Midnight On Oconee is the likely pacesetter, while Banner Waving makes her route debut in her first start against winners.