In February, the 4-year-old filly Sudden Switch made a successful transition from the barn of trainer Chad Brown to that of Riley Mott. Sudden Switch, belatedly debuting this past January, won a Tampa Bay Downs maiden sprint first out. The next month, Allen Wise’s Wise Racing sold the mare at auction for $170,000, and in her first outing for Mott and owners Todd Senger, Rebel Racing, and Dennis Park, Sudden Switch scored a sharp, front-running first-level Keeneland route allowance victory. The 89 Beyer Speed Figure she earned is higher than the 85 Raging Sea posted capturing the Grade 1 La Troienne on May 2. But to win for the third time, in the featured seventh race Sunday at Churchill Downs, Sudden Switch must cope with a mare transitioning from the Southern to Northern Hemisphere. Ayra Stark, bred in Argentina and campaigned there her first eight races, was purchased privately late last fall by Haymarket Farm and sent to campaign in America with trainer Ignacio Correas. Ayra Stark makes her first start for new connections while racing 1 1/8 miles on dirt Sunday in a second-level allowance with an $80,000 claiming option. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Ayra Stark has a work pattern dating to late February, and recent breeze video at Keeneland reveals a mare who looks more than ready for her return to racing following a half year’s absence. “She’s training like a freak. I’m looking forward to seeing her in the afternoon,” Correas said. Correas, an Argentine native himself, knows as well as any trainer how to turn a Southern Hemisphere horse into a Northern Hemisphere one, females especially. His roster of South American fillies and mares includes the turf horse Didia, who won the Grade 1 New York last June at Saratoga, and dirt standouts Le Da Vida and Blue Prize. Le Da Vida and Blue Prize, perhaps not coincidentally, also made their American debut in second-level Churchill allowance races. Le Da Vida won hers, a one-turn mile in September 2022, and in November 2023 finished third, beaten a half-length, in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Blue Prize was second going 1 1/16 miles in June 2017, and in November 2018 won the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. No one is placing Ayra Stark in that kind of company – not yet, at least. Ayra Stark nearly won a Group 1 in April of 2023. After one more start, she was gone for a year, returning to action last July, then reeling off three increasingly impressive wins, the last in Group 2 competition. Correas helped engineer the purchase, Ayra Stark vetted out, and the mare has not, her trainer said, taken any missteps making the move from Argentina to America. Sudden Switch at Keeneland went straight to the lead and showed no signs of wavering over a short-stretch 1 1/16 miles. But her ability to stay 1 1/8 miles Sunday depends on how much pressure she takes – if Sudden Switch is even asked to lead again – from Impel and Windy Walk. Impel earned a 91 Beyer winning her second career start in March of 2024 but has not gotten back to that figure in five subsequent starts. Amber Cascade cleared this condition three starts ago at Fair Grounds and gets into Sunday’s contest via the $80,000 claiming option. She might be running into two rivals, at least, who simply are faster. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.