Wonder Wheel using Ashland as springboard to Kentucky Oaks
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LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Ashland Stakes is an obvious means to an end, and yet it stands proudly on its own merits. Among the last five Ashland winners were Monomoy Girl (2018), Malathaat (2021), and Nest (2022), all of them champions.
“This race is meant to bring her into the Kentucky Oaks in perfect shape,” said Mark Casse, the Hall of Fame trainer who will run D. J. Stable’s 2-year-old filly champion of 2022, Wonder Wheel, in the Grade 1, $600,000 Ashland on the Friday opener to the Keeneland spring meet. “That said, the Ashland is a great race in its own right.”
And one Casse sure wouldn’t mind winning for the first time. Wonder Wheel, with Tyler Gaffalione riding from post 2, clearly is the one to beat in a field of seven 3-year-old fillies in the 1 1/16-mile Ashland, a 200-point qualifier (100-40-30-20-10) toward the Kentucky Oaks on May 5 at Churchill Downs.
As the winner of the Grade 1 Alcibiades and Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies here last fall, Wonder Wheel already has enough points to make the 14-horse cutoff for the 1 1/8-mile Oaks. The thrust of her efforts Friday will be geared toward having her at a peak for the Oaks.
“This is similar to what we tried to do with her last fall,” Casse said. “The Alcibiades was supposed to set her up for the Breeders’ Cup, and fortunately that worked out the way it did. That’s what we need from her Friday – we want her to have a good out in the Ashland that’ll move her forward.”
Casse was at Tampa Bay Downs to saddle Wonder Wheel in her lone start this year, the Suncoast Stakes on Feb. 11. Wonder Wheel had dead aim on front-running longshot Dreaming of Snow but somehow failed to get past, finishing second by a neck as a 1-2 favorite. Casse was not upset in the least.
“Not even a little bit,” he said. “After the Suncoast, she really did come to life. She’s training as good as she can train. The rest is going to be up to her.”
Julia Shining (post 4, Luis Saez), who closely tracked Dreaming of Snow and Wonder Wheel in the Suncoast before settling for third, has to be considered the top Ashland challenger. Trained by Todd Pletcher, who has won this race the last two years with Malathaat and Nest, the Stonestreet Stables homebred is a filly of genuine promise based on her pedigree (by Curlin out of Dreaming of Julia) and her three prior starts. Her come-from-behind debut victory here last fall was a thing of beauty, after which she won the Grade 2 Demoiselle in the Aqueduct slop in a determined effort. She’ll be racing in blinkers for the first time Friday.
The wild card of the group has to be Guns n’ Graces (post 3, Joel Rosario), who came flying in the final furlong of her stakes debut, the one-mile Davona Dale on March 4 at Gulfstream Park, when up for second behind a runaway winner, Dorth Vader.
“I asked Joel after the Davona Dale whether she was closing as fast as it looked like,” said Brown, who earlier this week was busy relocating from his Payson Park winter base to New York and Kentucky. “I thought it was quite impressive, the last eighth of a mile. Watching the race live from the stands, it looked really good.
“The pace was very fast [six furlongs in 1:10.02], so Joel did say the winner may have been coming back to him a little. But he also said she was really picking up horses and moving best through the wire and out past it. Hopefully, we’ll get a good pace to run at here and she’ll make another nice run like that.”
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Punchbowl (post 5, Flavien Prat) figures as one more Ashland contender when making her stakes debut. Trained by Brad Cox, the Uncle Mo filly is 2 for 2, with a last-out allowance victory grading out to a field-high 89 Beyer Speed Figure.
Rounding out the Ashland lineup are Pride of the Nile, Defining Purpose, and Effortlesslyelgant.
This is the 86th running of the Ashland, named for the historic Lexington estate of the 19th century statesman Henry Clay. Some of its previous winners include such greats as Bewitch (1948), Doubledogdare (1956), Princess Rooney (1983), and Silverbulletday (1999).
The Ashland is the ninth of 10 races, with post time set for 5:16 p.m. Eastern.
All main-track races going 1 1/16 miles at Keeneland begin and end at what otherwise is the sixteenth pole.
◗ Before the Friday card begins, Keeneland is a hosting an autograph session by retired and active jockeys near the walking ring from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. All proceeds benefit the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund.
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