A low point in Xigera’s racing career also was a turning point. On Aug. 4 at Saratoga, Xigera got bogged down on a soft turf course and finished sixth, beaten nearly 20 lengths, in the Saratoga Oaks Invitational. The poor performance led her connections to try Xigera on dirt for the second time. What they unearthed was a filly even better on the main track than on grass, and Xigera comes into the Grade 3, $400,000 Falls City Stakes on Thursday at Churchill Downs on a two-race winning streak likely to reach three. Despite moving out of races restricted to 3-year-olds and facing older stakes horses for the first time, Xigera is a reasonable 3-5 on the morning line for the Falls City, a 1 1/8-mile contest restricted to older fillies and mares. Nine were entered but no more than eight will run since Hidden Connection instead raced Saturday in the Chilukki Stakes. Xigera had run poorly the previous November, finishing last of 14 in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf but won her first two races this year, an allowance race and the Tepin Stakes at Ellis Park, racing on grass. Xigera last fall had moved from a Saratoga turf maiden win to finish a solid fourth on dirt in the Alcibiades Stakes. “We had dirt in the back of our mind all year, but if it’s not broke, why fix it,” said Phil Bauer, who trains Xigera for Rigney Racing. “I guess the turf coming up wet at Saratoga might have been a blessing in disguise.” Going 1 1/16 miles in the Seneca Stakes two months ago at Churchill, Xigera won by more than six lengths and earned a 98 Beyer Speed Figure, easily a career best. Last month, she went to New York and captured the Grade 2 Mother Goose, contested over 1 1/8 miles Oct. 28 at Aqueduct, by more than three lengths. If Xigera holds that form, she’ll be formidable in the Falls City, and Bauer sees no reason why Xigera would regress. “She’s doing just as well as she was before,” Bauer said. “If she runs her race, she should be tough in there.” :: DRF's Black Friday Sale: Get 20% off (almost) everything in the DRF Shop. Code: BF2023 Xigera, a daughter of Nyquist, will have regular rider Julien Leparoux in the saddle. Drawn on the outside, she should get a perfect pressing or stalking trip with her lone pace rival, Jag Warrior, breaking to her inside. Bauer and Rigney Racing also start Scratch Kat, who has won two in a row. She can’t beat Xigera if both run to form, but a second-place finish isn’t out of the question in a relatively soft spot. Misty Veil returns from a freshening and can make her presence felt if she gets back to her top form from earlier this year, and Distinctlypossible should improve in her second race after a layoff of more than three months. Bellamore could wind up a distant second choice in the betting. The 5-year-old is entirely exposed after 18 starts but her third-place finish behind victorious Idiomatic in the Grade 1 Spinster on Oct. 8 puts her in shouting distance of contention.