Valadorna will make 2017 debut in allowance next Friday

Valadorna, a top Kentucky Oaks prospect on the strength of her encouraging three-start 2-year-old campaign, is set to make her first start of 2017 in a first-level allowance race next Friday at Fair Grounds.

Valadorna is one of six 3-year-old fillies entered to go a mile and 70 yards on the main track in the sixth race. She drew post 1 and has Florida-based Julien Leparoux, her regular pilot, named to ride.

Trained by Mark Casse for Stonestreet Stables, Valadorna, a daughter of Curlin, won only one of three races last year but impressed in her Keeneland maiden score and was a troubled second to Champagne Room in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. She was given a short break from training in Florida after the Breeders’ Cup and was sent to Fair Grounds last month.

Valadorna figures to be an odds-on favorite, with Holiday Angel, who also makes her 3-year-old debut, the possible second choice.