Turf allowance draws stakes-caliber field
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Most of the best older fillies and mares stabled at Arlington this summer are entered in the featured fifth race on Friday’s card.
The cream of the nine entrants might not be household names but they’re about the best Chicago has to offer in the division – which, even in its currently depleted state, still is pretty good.
Draw a line through the massive longshot Youvegottopaytopla, and her stablemate Skyluck also looks overmatched, but the rest of the horses in this one-mile turf race with multiple high-end allowance conditions and a $100,000 claiming option are of stakes class or close to it.
Chief among that group is Streamline, who has made nine of her last 10 starts in graded stakes competition and is a Grade 2 winner and Grade 1 placed on dirt. An Illinois homebred owned by Nancy Vanier and Cartwright Thoroughbreds, Streamline captured the Grade 3 Bayakoa early this year at Oaklawn Park, where she has thrived, but was nowhere near her best form in the Fleur de Lis and La Troienne this spring and summer at Churchill Downs.
Streamline is 6 now and this likely is her last year of racing, and her connections are trying her on turf for the first time since November 2015. Streamline was a competent grass horse before hitting a new level on dirt, and she might get a good setup stalking a strong pace in Friday’s feature.
Trainer Michele Boyce has two entered, and while My Mertie would prefer Polytrack, Boyce said she likely runs if the race stays on grass. But on turf the Boyce entrant with the better chance is Lovely Loyree, who won the $100,000 Indiana General Assembly Distaff on July 14. Lovely Loyree, a three-time Arlington turf winner, had a light early season schedule and bounced back quickly from her race at Indiana Grand, Boyce said.
One Liz exits a so-so fourth in the Grade 3 Chicago Handicap, a Polytrack sprint, and is back on turf for the first time since being beaten less than three lengths in the Grade 1 First Lady last fall at Keeneland. She’s a front-running sort who could be vulnerable to a pace battle with Daddy’s Boo, who was second in the Grade 3 Arlington Matron on Polytrack earlier this meet and is equally capable on turf.
Go Lady Jay probably is in too tough, but has multiple Illinois stakes placings this year. Babybluesbdancing, a listed winner, is entered for the main track only and probably won’t get to race.