V V's Dream faces improving group in Rags to Riches

V V’s Dream has earned her short price in the $200,000 Rags to Riches Stakes and faces only six rivals Saturday at Churchill Downs, but the filly is no slam dunk.

The six other entrants in this 1 1/16-mile dirt race for 2-year-old fillies have some degree of merit. V V’s Dream has accomplished more and is faster so far, but with only a handful of starts between them, the opposition has wide latitude for improvement.

The Rags to Riches, a prep for the Golden Rod next month, is part of the Road to the Kentucky Oaks – the first four across the finish receive 10, 5, 2, and 1 Oaks qualifying points, respectively. V V’s Dream’s connections, owners MJM Racing and Magdelena Racing, the latter a partnerships operation headed by trainer Kenny McPeek, have every reason to have the Oaks in mind.

While V V’s Dream would have been among the shorter prices in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, McPeek, a couple days after the filly had been a good second in the Oct. 6 Alcibiades, already was downplaying the Breeders’ Cup and talking about keeping V V’s Dream in Kentucky. V V’s Dream, by Mitole out of Quay, by Tapit, has two wins and two second-place finishes from her four races. The wins came at Churchill, the losses as the favorite in stakes at Ellis Park and Keeneland.

A poor start cost V V’s Dream in the Ellis race, the six-furlong Debutante, V V’s Dream unable to run down the speedy Brightwork. V V’s Dream returned with a blowout one-turn mile win the Pocahontas, earning a strong 88 Beyer Speed Figure, and got her revenge on Brightwork in the Alcibiades, but she was beaten a length there by Candied.

V V’s Dream stretched to the two turns and 1 1/16 miles of the Alcibiades without apparent issue. She relaxed beautifully while stalking the pace for jockey Brian Hernandez, cruised to the lead with a quarter-mile to run, and was in hand when Candied, vigorously encouraged, attacked to her outside with three-sixteenths left. V V’s Dream responded after being passed but never could get back on terms while finishing nearly six lengths in front of the third filly home. If V V’s Dream runs back to that performance, someone will have to step up to beat her.

Her stablemate Shimmering Allure, a distant fourth in the Alcibiades, doesn’t seem like the one, nor does Floored. Give the others a second look.

Brad Cox has two entrants, Gin Gin and West Sunset. Gin Gin at 9-2 is the shorter price, but 8-1 West Sunset may be the better route prospect. Gin Gin, by Hightail, finished second in a Horseshoe Indianapolis maiden race unusually fast for that venue, then won well in a seven-furlong Churchill maiden. West Sunset debuted over six furlongs on Sept. 19 at Churchill and managed to get up by a neck after launching a sustained outside run from 10th place. She galloped out well, and her Oct. 16 wet-track work at Churchill strongly hinted – through stride, body type, and gallop-out – at a filly asking for more ground.

Flashy debut winner Twirling Good Time won going 5 1/2 furlongs on Sept. 27 by four lengths, getting an 80 Beyer, and is the 4-1 second favorite on the line. Her race, pedigree, body type, and recent workouts don’t quite point the same direction, distance-wise, as West Sunset.

Candy Landy enters as a two-race maiden because she was disqualified from first to last owing to backstretch interference Sept. 21 in a seven-furlong Churchill maiden race. Candy Landy was passed in midstretch that day and gamely came back to win going away. Trainer Rusty Arnold is not the type to throw caution to the wind running an overmatched maiden in a stakes race.

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