Sudsy Baby may have edge

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Executive Flight and Sudsy Baby, the two 3-year-old fillies in Friday's Woodbine headliner, have taken different paths toward the seven-furlong, $80,000 allowance/optional claimer.

Executive Flight competed in a series of restricted stakes for 3-year-olds during the middle portion of the meet. She was third on the dirt in the Lady Angela in May, and eventually made a successful transition to the turf when she finished a close second in the Passing Mood in July.

Executive Flight, trained by Darwin Banach, was a troubled third in her first attempt over the all-weather track in the 1 1/16-mile Eternal Search on Aug. 30. Her last stakes start resulted in a runner-up placing on turf going a mile, in the Sept. 16 La Prevoyante.

Executive Flight's two early-season allowance scores came against Ontario-sired opposition. She defeated older first- and second-level allowance company in her two most recent outings, earning a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 83 in the last.

Sudsy Baby, a Florida-bred trained by Stanley Baresich, has had to face open stakes and allowance company this year. She romped in a seven-furlong allowance July 2 over Vestrey Lady, who subsequently won two stakes and is among the leading 3-year-old fillies in the country.

Sudsy Baby wound up second to Vestrey Lady in the Duchess Stakes on the inner dirt track in August. She was a nonfactor in two subsequent route stakes, on turf and the Polytrack. Last time, in the seven-furlong Bessarabian Stakes, she was a deceptively good fifth behind some formidable opposition, while receiving a Beyer Figure of 85.

Other possibilities are Silver Impulse, Archie's Gal, and Miss Dorothy. All three are shortening up to a distance at which they have won.

Silver Impulse, now trained by the legendary Frank Passero Jr., has competed over route distances in each of her six starts this year, the best of which was a third-place finish in the restricted Algoma Stakes. She won her season opener in a minor allowance, which was taken off the grass and run over a sloppy track.

Archie's Gal was second to heavily favored Financingavailable in her third-to-last outing, the Classy N' Smart. She upset Sweet Breanna a month ago in a $62,000 optional claimer, and that rival came right back to win at that level.

Miss Dorothy has been working quickly in preparation for her first start in two months.