Stunning Sky, Winter Sunset top turf allowance

Stunning Sky, a Grade 3 winner at Keeneland, and the regally bred multiple stakes winner Winter Sunset are among a field of seven that has an international flavor Wednesday at Keeneland. The $85,000 third-level allowance is for fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles on turf and drew eight, with His Glory entered to run only if the race is transferred to the main track.

In her only start this season, Stunning Sky was second by a head in the Jersey Lilly in January at Sam Houston. Stunning Sky, by the War Front horse Declaration of War, emerged last summer at Saratoga, finishing second by a head in the Grade 2 Lake Placid and second by a half-length in the Saratoga Oaks. She won the Grade 3 Valley View Stakes during Keeneland’s fall meeting last year, going the same 1 1/16-mile distance of Wednesday’s race.

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Stunning Sky, trained by Mike Maker, will have Tyler Gaffalione in the irons as she breaks from post 2. She typically rallies from well off the pace. For example, in the Valley View she was ninth of 10, about seven lengths back, after a half-mile, and was still sixth in the stretch. Wednesday, she may be hindered by a lack of pace, with Final Cut looking like the main speed from the rail if the race is run on turf.

Winter Sunset, trained by Wayne Catalano, breaks from post 6 under Florent Geroux. She is well-drawn to work out her preferred stalking trip.

Winter Sunset returned from a one-year layoff because of what Catalano described as minor issues to finish seventh in a Keeneland allowance last October. In her only start since, she ran sixth in the Tom Benson Memorial going 1 1/16 miles on turf in March at Fair Grounds.

A daughter of leading sire Tapit and Grade 1 winner Winter Memories, Winter Sunset won her first two starts, including the Shantel Lanerie Memorial Stakes in February 2019 at Fair Grounds. She went on to finish second, third, or fourth in four graded stakes before winning the Indiana Grand Stakes in September 2019. She was 10th in the Valley View at Keeneland in October 2019 and didn’t start again for a year.

Joy Epifora was a Group 1 winner in her native Argentina before coming to the United States for trainer Ignacio Correas. She has not won in six starts in this country and is coming off fourth-place finishes in a pair of stakes at Fair Grounds. James Graham was in the irons for both those efforts and retains the call Wednesday.

The British import Alnaseem is making her first start in the United States. Owned and trained by Ed Vaughn, she has won 3 of 14 while never racing on firm turf. The ground at Keeneland is likely to dry out from a wet weekend with no precipitation in the forecast Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday.