Wonder Gadot might take on the boys in Lecomte

Trainer Mark Casse will have two fillies, Heavenly Love and Wonder Gadot, in New Orleans for the first 3-year-old dirt-route stakes of the Fair Grounds season on Jan. 13, but both might not run in the same race.

Heavenly Love, as has been the plan for several weeks now, will race against fillies in the Silverbulletday Stakes, but Wonder Gadot could step outside her own sex to face males in the Lecomte Stakes, Casse said.

Casse trains several talented fillies about to turn 3 and is seeking separate paths for them, if possible. He said that after conversing with owner Gary Barber, the decision was made to send Wonder Gadot from Florida to New Orleans to race next month.

Wonder Gadot showed high-level ability starting her career on turf at Woodbine this summer, won the Mazarine Stakes on Woobine’s all-weather surface by six lengths, was a troubled sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, and came back to win the Grade 2 Demoiselle Stakes on Dec. 2 at Aqueduct.

Heavenly Love, meanwhile, will try to bounce back from a disappointing showing in the BC Juvenile Fillies, where she barely lifted a hoof while beaten 25 lengths a month after winning the Grade 1 Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland. Heavenly Love went to Florida following the Breeders’ Cup, but has been based with Casse’s Fair Grounds string for a couple weeks and has worked twice at Fair Grounds.

Casse said he also plans to send Monster Bea to Fair Grounds for the Colonel Bradley Stakes on the Lecomte and Silverbulletday card.