True Cinder plays a new game in Cincinnatian

Among the fillies set for Sunday’s $75,000 Cincinnatian Stakes at Belterra Park, True Cinder is the only stakes winner of the bunch – and a multiple stakes winner at that. True Cinder gets a new challenge as she tries turf for the first time in the 1 1/16-mile Cincinnatian against her fellow Ohio-accredited 3-year-old fillies, many of whom also have never run on turf.

True Cinder, who placed in multiple stakes last year while still a maiden, turned to a front-running style and won her maiden by 12 lengths in November at Mahoning Valley. That kicked off a four-race win streak that included a five-length score last December in the Glacial Princess Stakes at Mahoning Valley.

Following a winter break, she picked up right where she left off, winning the Dr. T.F. Classen Memorial Stakes on a muddy track in May at Thistledown, and she added a 6 1/4-length allowance romp at that track a few weeks later. She earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 72 last out, easily the best mark in this field.

True Cinder is by Alcindor, who scored both of his wins on synthetic surfaces in California. Her broodmare sire, Shakespeare, was a multiple Grade 1 winner on turf.

Trained by Mike Rone, True Cinder drew outside in the field of six under Rex A. Stokes III.

Mygirlfriday, the only other stakes-performing member of the lineup, bookends the field from the rail under Perry Ouzts. Mygirlfriday, trained by James McDonald, finished third in last fall’s Emerald Necklace Stakes behind Pyrite Slew, a race in which True Cinder was second.

Mygirlfriday ran a career-best 56 Beyer in finishing second in an allowance race last month on a sloppy track at Thistledown.

Shes My Girl enters off a five-length allowance win at Belterra. In her prior start, however, she was 10th in the Tomboy Stakes when trying turf. Cincinnatian rival Grizabella was fourth in the Tomboy.