Nine vie for Queen Of Rain stakes

Nine distaff turf sprinters will go postward in the $70,000 QUEEN OF RAIN Special Stakes. Today’s distance will be seven furlongs and the solid favorite, Woody’s Zzene, is stuck with the outside post position. The field is small, but extremely competitive, so let’s get started by looking at each of them.

Drawing the inside post is the talented stakes winning daughter of 2000 Breeders’ Cup Mile winner War Chant, Prospector’s Chant. Trained by slewbetcha, she enters this race off of a narrow defeat in a minor stakes race in Eastern Kentucky. She shows previous experience in graded stakes races, running well in some of those starts. With the small field, look for her to be forwardly placed.

Gold Watcher, trained by pg48, is by the sensational older stallion Seeking The Gold. This filly reeled off several impressive performances against minor stakes company before falling out of form in her past two starts. Jockey Logan looks to get the win with a patient, stalking style trip.

In post position three is the four year old daughter of Sky Mesa, House In The Sky. Trainer ekspect seems to have this filly rounding into decent form as of lately. She is nine of fifteen in the money on the turf and never seems to turn in a poor performance. Look for this filly to rally from off the pace in pursuit of her fourth career win.

Ultra Cat, the extremely talented daughter of Fusaichi Pegasus, will occupy post position four. So far, the pinerivers trainee owns three wins from five career starts and is undefeated while sprinting. Today’s race will mark her first venture into stakes company, and although she is the one of the longer shots in the field, her speeds match up to the rest of the fillies. Regardless of her performance today, look for this filly to make some noise down the road.

Next comes the five year old mare, Thirteenth Step. She is by Mujahid and is trained by pulpit49er. Her consistency is prevalent throughout her past performance. Although she does not make it to the winner’s circle often, she is yet another mare who never runs a bad race. Today, she shortens up in distance and looks to come from off of the pace.

Ocanada sends Knock Out King out for her sixth straight stakes start. This daughter of Two Punch has been out of form lately, with five straight poor performances in stakes company. She’ll try to turn things around today under new jockey T Wang.

Another Pedro starts from post seven looking for her first stakes win. The daughter of Dynaformer is trained by mattsbest. She has a three for seven lifetime record, with her last two wins coming in allowance company. Her past two starts have been somewhat disappointing ventures into stakes company, but she will attempt to turn the tables today.

The speedy Dixie Queen occupies post eight, looking to make it back to back victories. This millerfar2 trained daughter of Monarchos is by far the fastest filly in this race, and looks to get loose on an easy lead. She seems to be slightly more competitive in allowance races, but her speed could be the equalizer today.

Favored Woody’s Zzene is in the outside post position. Ruby5 sends this daughter of Cozzene to the gate in search of her first win in what will be seven starts. Before her recent losing streak, she had won eight of fifteen career starts. While her starts now number twenty one, she still continues to run well in stakes races. Look for her to come flying from last to try to run down Dixie Queen’s speed.