“Xtremely” Close Race in Ohio this Week!
This week we travel to Ohio to take in the LONG HILLTOP Challenge Stakes. The race is named for Long Hilltop whowas a three time winner and stakes winner in only 18 races. This mile and one quarter Stakes for 3 year old fillies and mares should be run on fast dirt as the weather report is fantastic for this weekend in Ohio. This $45,000 stakes race looks like it’s up for grabs as the morning line has everyone at either 5/2 or 3/1 but let’s take a look:
#1 THIEF AT HEART trained by bigdog – The 3 yr old chestnut filly is a Vindication out of Stolen Love offspring that has finished first or second an amazing 11 of 14 races. This is her first Stakes try but if the last four races with 2 wins and 2 seconds are any indication, Stolen Love is going to be looked on as quite the broodmare. She also has a promising 2 year old, Stolen Affection. It appears that she may look proudly at offspring Thief at Heart in Ohio this week.
#2 BIDASOA trained by layeguada – This impressive Forty Niner 3 year old filly out of Holda is dropping down from Graded Stakes her last two out. Before that she had won three Stakes races in a row. Definitely a force to be reckoned with here, she is looking for her seventh win in 15 trys. She could be knocking on the door here.
#3 ACCELERANDO trained by cms424 – Danzig is a legend and this offspring, Accelerando is helping live up to it. She has a Stakes win and a nice “in the money” percentage but has been a bit off lately. She hasn’t won in 5 straight but looked vastly improved the last two. She may be ready to break it out here against this field.
#4 GILDED PEARL trained by carpediem – Gilded Pearl, the Grindstone out of Chase a Native filly took a break from the grind of the Stakes journey last time out and threw her best time and first triple digit speed figure. She has always run sprints before this but appears ready to make the jump. She’s got the low earnings figure in this group but would like to win some spending money here.
#5 XTREMELY AWESOME trained by ejdstable – Awesome Again is quickly becoming one of my favorite sires and this pretty brown filly shows why. She had a third in a Grade One after two Stakes wins in a row in her last three and always seems to throw a good race. She’s got the experience, the talent and the best Ohio jockey, M Grunhard up. It appears that she should be feeling extremely awesome after the Long Hilltop Challenge.
Put lots of film in the Photo Finish camera as it could be five stretched across the wire. I would like to pick GILDED PEARL here but wonder about the distance. I am going with XTREMELY AWESOME to win followed “xtremely” closely by BIDASOA and THIEF AT HEART.
Good luck to all runners!
Paz