Temple City Terror returns at distance shorter than her best
LEXINGTON, Ky. – April has come in like a lion for the Brendan Walsh barn. Since the turn of the calendar page, the trainer has sent out 20 starters, at Gulfstream Park, Keeneland, and Turfway Park. He has won seven times, and finished in the top three with another three horses.
The span includes a pair of three-win Saturdays, as Walsh saddled Family Way to win the Grade 3 Orchid Stakes, Weyburn to win the Sir Shackleton Stakes, and My Philly Twirl to win the Sanibel Island Stakes on the April 2 Florida Derby undercard at Gulfstream. He saddled three winners last Saturday at Keeneland, including Grade 3 Commonwealth victor Prevalence.
“You always [hope for] one or two – you never expect to have three,” Walsh said. “So to have a couple of Saturdays like that is fantastic.”
Walsh will look to keep rolling when he sends out Temple City Terror in Thursday’s eighth race, a $140,000 allowance for fillies and mares on the Keeneland turf. The race serves as the nominal feature on a nine-race program.
Temple City Terror, who won the Keertana last May at Churchill Downs, is making the first start of her 6-year-old campaign. In her most recent outing, she was third behind Eclipse Award finalist War Like Goddess in the Grade 2 Glens Falls at Saratoga.
“We had her in Florida all winter, and she’s been training really good,” Walsh said. “She had a great go last year for a while, and it looks like she’s come back as good as ever.”
Both the Keertana and Glens Falls were at the marathon 1 1/2-mile distance that Temple City Terror prefers. She has won once from 12 starts at the 1 1/16-mile distance of Thursday’s allowance.
“It’s probably going to be a little on the short side for her on Thursday,” Walsh said. “She obviously ran her better races going longer. But she’s still been competitive at a mile and a sixteenth, so I think she’ll run a good race.”
A salty field of seven were entered, with Misty Veil main-track only. The group also includes multiple graded stakes winner Fluffy Socks and stakes winners Pass the Plate, Norma Jean B., and Core Values.
Fluffy Socks, trained by Chad Brown, won the Grade 3 Jimmy Durante in 2020 at Del Mar, and the Grade 2 Sands Point last fall at Belmont Park. She was third last year in a pair of Grade 1 events, the Del Mar Oaks and American Oaks, the latter taken off the turf.
Pass the Plate, who was graded stakes-placed last year at Keeneland, enjoyed a productive winter at Fair Grounds for Paul McGee, winning the Marie Krantz Memorial by a head and finishing second in the Albert M. Stall Memorial by a neck. Both those races were at 1 1/16 miles.
Also coming in with solid efforts at this distance is Norma Jean B., who has won four of her last five outings for Vladimir Cerin, starting with a maiden win last July at Del Mar. She enters off consecutive 1 1/16-mile wins, including the Glendale in February at Turf Paradise.
◗ Grade 1-placed Baby Yoda looms large in the fourth race, a starter allowance for horses who ran with a claiming tag of $10,000 or less, as he drops out of four straight stakes starts for trainer Bill Mott. The gelding’s most recent win came last September at Saratoga when he earned a 114 Beyer Speed Figure in an allowance. He was most recently second in the Pelican Stakes at Tampa Bay.