Tricky N Clever clear favorite in Colorado feature

Eight fillies go to the post in the second annual edition of the Kris My Hindend Memorial, a 9furlong stakes for older mares on the dirt for $55k in prize money. 

 

PP1: Incandescence, 3-1 on the morning line, gets top jockey M Wallace in the irons.  Owner Repaper has high hopes for his 5yo Unbridled’s Song mare to pick up her second straight stakes win.  This striking dark gray mare has an excellent race record with 8 wins on 28 starts, most with respectable speed figures and solid win margins.  Incandescence prefers to run near the lead, so look for a fast break and a comfortable pace on the rail for this mare.

 

PP2: Skyhigh’s T Held Ransom is a bit of an inconsistent horse.  The chestnut 4yo Ransom Calling filly scored a big win two back in the Five Star Vintage Stakes going 10.5 furlongs, but last time out she ran an uninspiring last place in the 10-furlong Princess Jill. The good news is, when she’s at longish odds, she tends to win, so the 11-1 shouldn’t be a problem here.  The bad news is, she’s a deep closer just like the field favorite Tricky N CLever but without the fleet turn of foot that mare has.  Ransom has a shot, but she’s likely running for fourth or fifth.

 

PP3: Deelynette’s graded winner Giddyup Diddie is still campaigning after 35 races and 8 wins with 10 more seconds and thirds.  The light gray With Approval mare hasn’t seen the winner’s circle since she picked up a G1 win in the Cedora D on grass last August, but don’t count her out here.  Diddie ran her first 34 starts on grass, but her canny trainer tried a shift to dirt in her last start in the 10 furlong Craft Prospector Special.  The move paid off with a second place with Diddie narrowing the margin right up to the wire.  The step back to 9f might seem an odd move, but as it is the mare’s preferred distance on grass it does make sense.  Like a few others in the race, Diddie is a closer, but she doesn’t need to come from the clouds to win.  Look for her to settle near but not quite at the back of the pack, and to be in the thick of the charge for the wire.

 

PP4: One of the more lightly-raced fillies in the field is Eyrie, trained by upperhand.  The 4yo filly is by Sky Mesa out of a Fappiano mare.  She has 5 wins from 16 starts, the most recent a 2 1/4 length victory in an allowance at California at 9furlongs on dirt. Eyrie is leaving sunny California for the first time in 6 starts, and back in stakes company for the first time since she ran fourth in the Well Heeled Memorial at 8.5 furlongs in March 2005.  Her recent race record suggests Eyrie can get the job done here to earn stakes win #2.  Her frontrunning style means she’ll have to build up the biggest lead jockey M Hobley can manage and hold off a charge from at least two other fillies down the stretch.  If she’s on her game, she has a good shot at pulling it off.   A pretty good bet at 6-1.

 

PP5: Aufan, another young filly experience-wise, is the field longshot at 14-1.  She;’s a 4yo by a son of Danehill out of a Lear Fan mare.  Trained by Zozbee and ridden by T Carrol, the filly was stakes-placed before she broker her maiden (in an allowance no less) midway through her 3yo campaign.  Since thenshe’s earned one allowance win in a wire-to-wire fashion at 9.5 furlongs.  Herlone start of 2006 saw Aufan pick up a fourth place finish by almost 5 lengthsin the Elf Mercy Stakes at California gong 9 furlongs.   Tricky N Clever,the field favorite, won that race.   Aufan has a legitimate shot ata win here due in part to her versatility.  One of her wins was on the lead;the other saw her rate nicely midpack. She is a few steps slower than the field,however, and will need her best effort to visit the winner’s circle.

 

PP6: Miss Alley also ran in the Elf Mercy stakes, finishing in third about a length ahead of Aufan. Tsukino’s 6yo Deposit Ticket mare last ran in the 9 furlong Beastie Peak(SAF) Challenge, but the sloppy track meant a disappointing 23-length loss.  No matter, as the track is fast today.  Miss Alley’s last win was three back in an allowance going a mile at Arizona; she rated well for a solid 2-length victory.  She has 4 wins on 16 starts, but with only 2 stakes race on her record it’s hard to say just how good she can be at this level.  Based on speed figures, she’s just slightly slower than the top three in the field but she looks to have more to give.  She has a good shot at a board finish.

 

PP7: Trainer 2furlongs must be counting himself lucky for the brilliant claim of Let It Down 5 starts back for a mere $25k. The 5yo mare is not only nicely bred (she’s by Exploit out of a Chief’s Crown mare) but moving her back to dirt has paid dividends in the form of a win and a place on 4 starts with her new owner.  Let It Down’s most recent race was a 8.5furlong allowance at this track where she ran second by a narrowing length with a 102SP.  This race is her first against stakes company, and for that she must be ranked slightly below some of the other mares.  On sheer speed alone, however, she cannot be discounted.  Watch for her to settle in third or fourth through the backstretch, move up to second around the turn, and if all goes as planned jockey Y Renee will try to get the lead with about a sixteenth left.

 

PP8: The morning line favorite at 8-5 is Tricky N Clever, owned by Ontheline. Jockey B Tice has the call on this accomplished 5yo Woodman mare.  Tricky’s career started late in her 3yo year, but since then she’s been rolling along picking up wins as if it were an everyday achievement.  She has, in 19 starts, 4 stakes wins, three stakes board finishes, and a third in the GII Jump Town.  Tricky likes to get out of the gate pretty slowly and will trail the field through the backstretch, but watch out for her closing kick; in her last race she made up about 10 lengths in her stretch run.  Hopefully her trainer will get her moving beyond 10 furlongs soon, she looks like she’ll love every yard she can get.