Wiggins packs one-two punch
Trainer Hal Wiggins practically radiates diplomacy. Ask Wiggins to choose one of the two fillies he entered in Sunday's $100,000 Tiffany Lass Stakes. Not a chance.
That will be up to the bettors, and the Tiffany Lass could turn on whatever difference exists between .
At one mile on dirt, the Tiffany Lass starts local 3-year-old fillies on the path to the $300,000 Fair Grounds Oaks. And there are plenty of them. Thirteen were entered in the Tiffany Lass, 11 locally based horses and one shipper each from Sam Houston and Oaklawn Park.
The Oaklawn filly, Stephan's Angel, has begun her career with three wins, two at Laurel for trainer Tim Tullock, and her last in the $60,000 Mom's Command at Aqueduct, her first start for John Servis. She has never raced beyond a sprint distance, but has the seasoning and ability to put up a fight in the Tiffany Lass, a good race for stretch-out sprinters since it ends at the sixteenth pole.
Sister Swank has followed a line of development similar to Stephan's Angel's, and her trainer, Steve Asmussen, has felt from day one his filly would become a route horse. But there's a rub - two of them, in fact.
"She's good, but it's a tougher race for her," Asmussen said. "Both of the Wiggins horses look better than anything she's run against."
Since All Electric and Lotta Kim have different owners, they start as separate betting interests - and require Wiggins to exercise his tact. But it's true. The two are difficult to separate. Both won their career debut last fall in Kentucky. Both have solid middle-distance pedigrees. And both have shown a bit more than the best of their opponents on Sunday.
Lotta Kim hasn't started since she finished second to Be Gentle in the Nov. 29 Golden Rod Stakes at Churchill, and Wiggins considered bringing her back in an entry-level allowance race. Instead, she will jump straight into stakes, ready to run, but perhaps not for a peak effort.
Meanwhile, All Electric - who drew poorly and will break from post 12 - got in a race here Jan. 4, winning an entry-level allowance by four lengths. That was her first start at two turns, and Wiggins hadn't been convinced his filly would settle and finish over a route of ground. Like so many fillies, All Electric can be temperamental, but she was perfect in the allowance race, rating beautifully for jockey Calvin Borel and easily out-kicking Shadow Cast, who returned to win her next start.