Turf Star set for distance test in Kent
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Turf Star will be looking to win beyond a mile on Saturday, when he chases after his second consecutive stakes victory in the $150,000 Kent at Delaware Park.
The race is one of two 1 1/8-mile turf stakes for 3-year-olds on the card. The $150,000 Christiana is for fillies and the field of eight includes Soloist and Tideoftime, who are out of the respective Grade 1-winning mares Daddys Lil Darling and Time and Motion.
As stakes winner, Turf Star and Chicken Dance are the most accomplished members of the Kent field of nine. Zeppelin has placed in three stakes races and Chambersville is proven at 1 1/8 miles, which is a separating distance among horses. McCready won over 1 3/16 miles last out at Keeneland.
Turf Star became a stakes winner at a mile on turf last out in the $100,000 James W. Murphy on May 16 at Laurel Park. His other career win came at the same distance at Kentucky Downs.
He settled off the pace and came with a run in both of those victories, and such a style should serve him well as the son of multiple Group 1-winning sprinter Caravaggio seeks to conquer more ground.
Turf Star gets notable pedigree support for the added distance from his dam, Starstruck, a daughter of Galileo who was a multiple Grade 3 winner at 1 1/8 miles on turf.
Turf Star will start from post 5. Jorge Ruiz has the mount for Calumet Farm and trainer Graham Motion.
Chicken Dance is moving back to turf, where he is a multiple winner, after taking the $95,000 Not Surprising on Tapeta last out at Gulfstream Park.
Zeppelin’s three stakes-placings have come in turf races, and he finished third in all of them: the Audubon at Churchill Downs, and both the Colonel Liam and Dania Beach at Gulfstream. Julien Leparoux has the mount from post 4 for LNJ Foxwoods and trainer Rusty Arnold.
Chambersville is a half-brother to Grade 2 winner Bubble Rock.
Christiana
The Christiana offers a collection of eight well-bred fillies the chance to become a stakes winner on Saturday.
Soloist, whose dam Daddys Lil Darling earned $1.3 million, enters off a third-place finish in the $150,000 Cleopatra Handicap on May 13 at Horseshoe Indianapolis. The runner-up from the race, Faye’s Gold, came back in her next start to win a first-level allowance at Churchill. Soloist is a half-sister to Group 1 winner Savethelastdance.
Tideoftime, whose dam Time and Motion earned more than $950,000, was fourth in a Laurel allowance last out that has since produced two next-out allowance winners, one at Delaware and the other at Laurel.
Bless Her is a daughter of Woodbine Oaks winner Irish Mission, who also finished second in the Queen’s Plate while earning more than $1.3 million. Bless Her enters the Christiana off a runner-up finish in an entry-level allowance at Keeneland.
Making Daisys is a half-sister to multiple Grade 2 winner Pretty N Cool. Making Daisys has won a maiden special weight and first-level allowance in her last two starts, and was flattered when the third-place finisher of the race she exits came back to take an allowance at Fort Erie.
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