Short field tackles Bright Account Stakes
This week the highlight race in Virginia is the Bright Account Stakes. We’d also like to extend a warm Virginia welcome to our visiting reporters covering the second leg of the highly publicized BBRS Triple. The weather is slated to be beautiful again this weekend for seven and a half furlong run for three year old fillies. This is the third annual running of this $45000 stakes, with its counterpart for two year old fillies slated to run later this year. Last year’s edition was taken in wire to wire fashion by Western Cat BG in her second stakes win of her three year old season. The race historically tends to draw short fields, and this year was not an exception. The track had to nominate on of the fillies from its resident horse pool to fill the field out to its four horse minimum. Oddsmakers have chosen two strong favorites, one at 3/5 and one at 8/5, with the remaining two fillies weighing in at 5/1 andd 7/1 odds. Save your money this week, unless you have some inside information, because it will take a major upset here to generate even a mediocre payout.
PP 1) Polaxed(KY) Sired by Johannesburg, Trained by gcphantom. Polaxed(KY) makes her eleventh career start here. She has one previous stakes win to her credit, coming earlier this season. Overall in her first ten she has generated a nice record of 5-2-1-0-1, with a best speed of 95.9 earned too starts back. Her last race was a Grade 3 effort at eight furlongs in South Carolina, where she finished fifth in a field of seven, shut down by the deeper closers. She spent her entire two year old season on dirt, but really blossomed with a switch to turf early this season. Her only loss to date on turf was the race at graded level last out. Her race is anywhere between seven and eight furlongs, and she runs right up the middle of that here. She’s a midpack to deep closer, but there is no early speed to speak of to set her up in this one. She’s going to have to rely on stamina and really dig in the second half to bring it home. She has some of the best speed in the field, though, and she should be dangerous.
PP 2) Kybean Queen(KY) Sired by Catinental, Trained by Virginia Track Pool. Kybean Queen(KY) drew the short straw in the barn, and was selected to fill out this field by the track officials. This is her eleventh career start, and she is still looking for her first stakes win. During the course of her first ten starts, she has cobbled together a 2-0-0-3-0, with a best speed of 86.0, earned in her last start. That run was her last under an individual trainer, an A2x at six and a half furlongs on dirt, where she finished a dismal ninth in a field of fourteen. She is primarily a dirt runner, and her one try on turf was less than stellar, to put it politely. She is a midpack closer, but hasn’t really shown much inclination to move in the second half. She’s got a field of closers around her and her speed on turf is suspect. Should follow the rest home here.
PP 3) Torch The Flame(KY) Sired by Kingmambo, Trained by super7. Torch The Flame(KY) takes the gate for her fourteenth career start in this race. She is the cream of this field, boasting five stakes wins, including a Grade 2 win earlier this season. She brings a 6-1-2-2-0 record to the table from her first fourteen, with a top speed of 96.9 earned in her Grade 2 victory earlier this year. Her last start was in the prestigious 1000 Guineas at Newmarket, where she got caught in traffic coming out of the gate and was never able to recover, finishing eleventh. She has been running turf since her third start and has eight top three finishes, six of them wins on the grass surface. She has performed well anywhere from six to eight furlongs, indicating a good balance of speed and stamina. She runs from midpack, and in this field, that could very well put her in the driver’s seat with an early lead. Her close has been good this season, and if she does get loose early, that’s going to make her hard to catch. Prior to the Guineas, she had three straight, all with speeds in the mid 90s, and if she does that here, she should have another stakes win on her resume.
PP 4) More Than Beauty(FR) Sired by Miesque’s Son, Trained by jirisquez. More Than Beauty(FR) will make her sixteenth career start in this race. She has two prior stakes victories, her last coming in her first race of this season. In her first fifteen, she has posted a record of 3-3-3-1-2, putting up a best speed number of 82.0, earned late last year. Her last start was an eight furlong off track dirt allowance in New York, where she ran seventh in a field of eight, not really showing any ambition. Her speeds have been comparable on both surfaces, but the bulk of her success has come on dirt. She’s shown some talent out into the nine furlong range, but this distance range has been her best, both for speed and four top three finishes in four tries. She’s a deep closer, but her close has been spotty this year, and this field won’t make it any easier on her. She has the credentials, and you have to give the trainer cudos for good placements, but she just hasn’t shown the speed to successfully compete at this level. She will need a breakout race well beyond her previous best to be a serious factor here.