Weight shouldn't hinder Katie M'lady in Illini Princess Handicap

What can Katie M’lady do for an encore after winning a stakes race named after her? Probably not much, and neither significant weight concession nor the threat of a rain-off is likely to keep Katie M’lady from the Hawthorne winner’s circle Sunday in the $75,000 Illini Princess Handicap.

Katie M’lady drew post 5 and faces just four foes in the Illini Princess, a 1 1/16-mile grass race for older Illinois-bred fillies and mares. She’s 3-5 on the morning line and will break from the gate at an even shorter price than that, provided the race stays on grass. That is no sure thing, given some serious rain Thursday night and the threat of more precipitation through the weekend.

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p>Trained by Michele Boyce, who also is part of the group that bred and owns the mare, Katie M’lady didn’t start between Aug. 31 and June 16, when she returned to action in the Katie M’lady Handicap. Boyce said she never told anyone Katie M’lady was retired, nor was she informed that a race had been named after her horse, but none of that really mattered after Katie M’lady seized an early lead and went entirely unchallenged in her comeback run, winning that turf route by more than seven lengths.

While Katie M’Lady won at odds of 7-5, she was the hunter rather than the hunted that day, getting six pounds from the odds-on favorite Oeuvre, who had to tote 130. Katie M’lady carries 127 pounds for the Illini Princess and concedes between nine and 12 pounds to the opposition. That’s reasonable. Katie M’lady, who got a 91 Beyer Speed Figure while racing for the first time in nearly 10 months, is a much faster horse than the quartet entered to face her, and her dirt form suggests she can go wire to wire should the Sunday feature wind up on dirt. Julio Felix rides Katie M’lady, who has posted three recent breezes preparing for her second start of 2024.

On turf, Trail Ridge Road figures second choice and the most likely candidate to pull an upset. She was beaten more than seven lengths last out by Katie M’lady, and the weight spread between the two grows only from six pounds to nine.

The Boyce-trained Journeyist has on occasion run fast enough dirt races that she could contend should the Illini Princess be moved to dirt. More likely, lightly raced but very successful Katie M’lady runs her career record to 9-4-1 from 15 starts.

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