Stakes preppers in pair of Thistledown allowances

Thoroughbred racing returned to Ohio last week, and the scene is already competitive at Thistledown, in North Randall. Several stakes winners will be in action in allowance company on Wednesday’s card, preparing for future engagements as the state’s revamped stakes schedule hits full swing this summer.

A pair of allowance races for fillies and mares share top billing. Two stakes winners from 2019 are among the seven entrants for the fifth race, which has a purse of $23,000. Totally Obsessed, trained by Gary Johnson for Ron Paolucci, won last year’s Norm Barron Queen City Oaks at Belterra and Southern Park Stakes at Mahoning Valley. In her lone start this year, the filly was seventh in an optional-claiming race in April at Tampa.

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Johnson also saddles the other stakes winner in the field, Cali Dream, for owner Jerry Laria. The mare won the Pay the Man Stakes and placed in four other stakes last year. She also wintered at Tampa, finishing sixth in an allowance in January in her most recent outing.

Spring in the Wind, also owned by Paolucci but trained by Anthony Quartarolo, spent a good deal of last year competing in open company, including several Grade 1 stakes. Her best effort came when second in the Satin and Lace Stakes at Presque Isle Downs to the accomplished Hotshot Anna.

Vertrazzo, trained by Bill Cowans for Michael Foster, also is well traveled as she was multiple stakes placed in Maryland as a juvenile and finished second in last year’s West Virginia Secretary of State Stakes.

Later in the day, the seventh race, a $21,500 allowance, has drawn three stakes winners in the field of nine. Grizabella won last year’s Miss Southern Ohio Stakes at Thistledown and placed in five other stakes on the season for trainer Jeff Radosevich, including a third in the Best of Ohio Distaff at Mahoning Valley. She was second to Distaff winner Leona’s Reward in the Bobbie Bricker Memorial in December in her most recent outing.

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Drillit, trained by Robert Gorham for Mast Thoroughbreds, established herself as an exciting prospect as a 2-year-old when she rolled by 16 1/4 lengths in the 2018 John W. Galbreath Memorial on the Best of Ohio showcase program, held that year at Thistledown. She also won that year’s Tah Dah Stakes at Thistledown and placed in two other stakes. Last year, the filly spent much of the season knocking on the door, with three stakes placings before winning the First Lady Stakes in November at Mahoning Valley. Four months later, Drillit was second in a Mahoning allowance race in her lone start of 2020 to date.

Gorham and Mast also send out another stable star in Edge of Night, winner of last year’s Glacial Princess and Emerald Necklace Stakes.

This allowance field also includes multiple stakes-placed Market Success; and Shore of Eden, who has not yet started in a stakes, but who won all three of her starts this year at Mahoning Valley before the coronavirus pandemic shut down the track.