Vergara will need best to stay perfect over course in Ladies Turf Marathon

If not for Kentucky Downs, 5-year-old Vergara on Saturday might be standing pregnant in a field. Instead, she lines up for the Ladies Turf Marathon trying to run her Kentucky Downs record to 3 for 3.

In 2022, Vergara won the $445,000 Dueling Grounds Oaks over 1 5/16 miles. In 2023, she won the $900,000 Ladies Turf Marathon at 1 5/16 miles. This year’s renewal comes at the same distance but with a doubled purse, $2 million for Kentucky-breds like Vergara, whose only wins since 2021 have come at this track.

“This is what we kept her in training for, to run back at Kentucky Downs,” said Graham Motion, who trains Vergara for Gary Broad.

The Grade 3 Ladies Turf Marathon, which is not really a marathon, drew only nine entrants, including Three Priests from England and Greenfinch from Ireland. Greenfinch, a 3-year-old lacking group stakes credentials, is the 3-1 second choice on a morning line that should be taken with a grain of salt. Chop Chop at 5-2 is the morning-line favorite, while Neecie Marie, who has kept the best company this year, is 4-1.

Vergara, 7-2 on the line, has been beaten by Chop Chop in her three starts this season, though the mare has improved race by race, most recently finishing third, three-quarters of a length behind Chop Chop, in the July 7 Robert Dick Memorial at Delaware Park.

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“Once she ran at Delaware, I felt we shouldn’t run her again. She’s in good form. I think she’s as good as last year,” Motion said.

Four-year-old Chop Chop won her only Kentucky Downs start, the Juvenile Fillies, but the Ladies Turf Marathon marks her eighth start of 2024, just another race on her schedule, not the focus of her season.

Chop Chop on Aug. 1 finished third in the Glens Falls at Saratoga, where Neecie Marie was entered and scratched from the Flower Bowl last weekend.

“The extra week was what we were looking for,” trainer Butch Reid said.

Below form when eighth in the Grade 1 Diana, 4-year-old Neecie Marie’s other races this year stamp her as the horse to beat if she handles the Kentucky Downs course. In May, she bested Whitebeam, the Diana winner, and her second-place finish June 7 in the Grade 1 New York, where she was beaten by Didia but finished 1 3/4 lengths ahead of War Like Goddess, is the best single race this year from anyone in the field. Neecie Marie came close to duplicating it Aug. 11, closing into a slow pace for third in the Beverly D.

On Saturday, Neecie Marie makes her first start beyond 1 3/16 miles.

“We were real happy with her Virginia race. Frankie Dettori got off her and said, ‘Run her as far as you want,’ ” Reid said.

Joel Rosario, who has ridden the filly twice, has the Neecie Marie mount, with Dettori booked to ride Aidan O’Brien’s three entrants Saturday, including Greenfinch.

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Greenfinch’s form to date won’t win the Ladies Turf Marathon, but she does look like an improving filly. Two starts ago she rallied from far behind the pace to finish third over 1 1/4 miles. Going a mile in her last start, Greenfinch led all the way, winning comfortably.

Three Priests, a 5-year-old trained by Roger Varian, remains eligible for a first-level allowance and hasn’t won a stakes. Nor has she started at Kentucky Downs, Vergara’s playground.

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