Treasure Got Ripped Off Stakes
Grade III
Six and one half furlongs
Firm Turf
$150,000
Fillies and mares, 2 years old

At this point in the season, it’s hard to tell who is destined for greatness and who is just a fast starter.  So we get a five-filly field for this Grade 3 turf test at Ascot today, and we’ve got obscure sires and a lot of past performance speeds in the low 70s.  Let’s meet the quintet and guess at who we’ll see on the rankings list as they grow up:

PP  Horse ID  Horse  Owner  Jockey  Odds

1 159491 MONARCH’S PRIZE(OK)  2furlongs  M Day  9/1   

This filly ships over after starting her career in the northeastern U.S.  Her last out was a decent-enough stakes win in Connecticut, where she tracked the leaders in a six-horse field and powered home by more than a length.  Oklahoma-based sire Monarch’s Maze is a little-known son of Kingmambo, but lest you think this young thing is fluky, Monarch’s Maze also has six-year-old DRAMA KING, who is stakes placed on turf.  Identically bred TEDDY’S MAZE is near the $100k mark in turf earnings.  This filly is not as regally bred on the back end as those two, but there is no reason to think that she cannot finish at least second.

2 101966 BIG TOP HALO(LA)  zoolander  P Harzheim  2/1 

Another little-known sire, this one the freshman Big Top Cat, who has a few other winners to his credit so far.  Big Top Cat is no slouch in the sireline department, as a Storm Cat out of a Mr. Prospector mare.  That might point dirt rather than turf, and BIG TOP HALO(LA)’s dam, HALO OVER VERMONT, was a decent enough racemare on dirt.  However, this filly has raced exclusively on turf, where she has shown up in the win photo in all five races, including three where she lost by less than a length.  The most impressive of those near-misses was the last race for the filly, a Grade 3 at Longchamp, where she ran near the back of a compact but full field, then charged late to lose to easy frontrunner EXCELLENT LEADER(IRE).  That’s her preferred running method, and it could serve her well here – I rate her the top choice.

3 155526 BRAINWASH(ENG)  thunor  J Sumpter  5/2  

Sire Oasis Dream was one of those who supposedly got the bump in the sim a year or so ago.  It hasn’t really shown up in this filly, who has started only on dirt, probably due to her Grade E dam’s breeding (a Broad Brush/Forty Niner type), even though she liked turf.  Anyhow, maybe the switch to turf will liven up this runner.  She’s managed a third in a West Virginia stakes, but was 11th in the G3-Desert Filly Juvenile on the Dubai dirt last month.  She’s more of a tracker than any other style, but she’s really relying on improved speeds on turf if she is to have an impact here.

4 160377 LAND OF PROMISE(FR)  achiew  P Perren  9/1 

This one is by Lando, the multiple Group 1 winner at classic distances, so maybe big things are to come as she grows up.  To date she’s been nice, with a first-out maiden win and a third in the Storm the West at Hong Kong last month.  In that race, she gave herself a 3 to 4 length gap all the way to the top of the stretch, then made one big run to close within a half length of the top two.  The speeds weren’t all that fast, but only BIG TOP HALO(LA) has really run faster in this field.

5 32599 SOLAR EXPLOSION(IRE)  mrbigb  D Aisy  6/5   

The betting favorite is a mere first-out maiden winner, doing the deed on June 7th in New Zealand.  However, she is the first foal out of the multiple Grade 1 winning Diesis mare, BATTLEFIELD EARTH(GB).  That fine runner, just retired, was a regular 105 to 110 runner on dirt, but never did much damage on turf.  No matter, mix in a little Galileo on the sire side, and why not try a short Grade 3 field for your second race?  If her frontrunning maiden win is an indication of her style and not just a reflection of a weak maiden field, she could find the pace to her liking here as the only speed.  It will be up to solid jockey D Aisy to make it happen and justify her price.