Walsh trio hopes to help trainer stay hot in Dowager Stakes
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Trainer Brendan Walsh will have three chances to win his fourth graded stakes of the Keeneland fall meet in the Grade 3, $350,000 Dowager on Sunday.
Opposing the Walsh trio in the Dowager, a 1 1/2-mile grass race for older fillies and mares, are two horses from the barn of trainer Joe Sharp, including Miwa, who would be favored if sufficient weight is given to her two races at Kentucky Downs in late August and early September.
Miwa, making her first start for Sharp, crushed second-level allowance foes Aug. 28 at Kentucky Downs and returned Sept. 6 to finish a creditable third in the $1.8 million Ladies Turf Marathon, where she beat three Dowager foes – fourth-place Duvet Day, seventh-place Boss Lady Bailey, and ninth-place Spanish Eyes.
Spanish Eyes is one of Walsh’s three and, despite her poor showing last out, rates a stronger chance than the others, Venencia and Bless My Stars. Those two make their first start for Walsh, Bless My Stars moving from Todd Pletcher’s stable. Pletcher also trained Miwa before she was sent to Sharp, and Pletcher, along with Walsh, is the only trainer with more than one graded stakes win at Keeneland this October.
The concern with Miwa is that her form at Kentucky Downs – the undulating, European-style course – was much better than in her three races over standard North American ovals, the first a Keeneland allowance in April. In her lone start over a distance as far as 1 1/2 miles and her only race around three turns – the Dowager configuration – Miwa ran poorly this summer at Saratoga.
Sharp’s second entrant, the surprising 3-1 morning-line favorite Vive Veuve, contested the pace and faded to sixth in the One Dreamer at Kentucky Downs, an odd trip for a filly generally ridden as a closer. Campaigned almost exclusively as a miler, Vive Veuve’s lone start over 1 1/2 miles came at Keeneland this past April in a second-level allowance. There, she had good early position before getting stuck on the rail and shuffled back behind fading foes, compromising trouble that cost her victory in a race won by Dowager starter Boss Lady Bailey.
Spanish Eyes’s lone 1 1/2-mile try came as a 3-year-old facing older males in the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden last fall in Germany, where she made her first four starts. She performed decently, finishing fourth in a race dominated by Spanish Moon and Dubai Honour, much stronger rivals than she faces Saturday. Spanish Eyes lost the 1 3/8-mile Robert Dick at Delaware Park by a nose, a race she wins with a better trip, and in the Beverly D. at Colonial Downs, Spanish Eyes closed fastest for second into a compromisingly slow pace. Placed more forwardly than expected at Kentucky Downs, she threw in the towel in upper stretch.
Don’t underestimate the Walsh factor. At Keeneland in April, he went 7-3-2-0 in graded stakes, winning the 1 1/2-mile Bewitch with the mare Forever After All. At this meet, Walsh has gone 5-3-0-1, capturing two turf stakes, the Grade 2 Jessamine with Imaginationthelady and the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup with Lush Lips. Among those six winners, only Forever After All was favored.
Miwa took Spanish Eyes’s measure at Kentucky Downs. Things could look different at Keeneland.
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