Vermont hosts the second annual running of the Grace Kelly Memorial<\/b>, a grade I event for 3yo fillies running nine furlongs on the dirt. The first edition of the Memorial (run last year) was won by Seeking Perfection in a time of 1:48.2, which netted her a 105SP. Perfection had just come off a dominating win in the Smackdown for Team GR Simsters, so that history may bode well for the field favorite in the 2006 edition of the Memorial. This race, like last year’s edition, is sponsored by Silver Charm, president of the GR Simsters.<\/p>\n
That favorite is Glorious Morning<\/b>, owned by seekin49er<\/i>. The 7\/2 odds are indicative of a filly at the top of her game. She won at this distance\/surface\/track with this jockey at the Smackdown ( where she posted a SP 1 point higher than did Seeking Perfection last year). The race before that she won the GI Sister Hen at 9f. This gorgeous Johannesburg filly is about as sure a winner as you’re likely to find at the graded level. She’ll likely drop back and close, although how far back she’ll go is up in the air; she can win from far back or from midpack.<\/p>\n
Five Points<\/b>, run out of the lenny1<\/i> stable of “we all love to hate the Lennbrenner” fame, will be doing her best to cement a spot ion the Breeders Bowl and pull off a big win over Glorious Morning. The chestnut Point Given filly struggled through the spring adding only a GII win to her resume, but has woken up this summer. Her last 2 starts saw her add a listed stake at a mile and the GII Wooly Mammoth at 8.5 to her list of wins. That last race was won with a fantastic 107SP, which was the fastest race run by a a 3yo of either gender at that distance this year. It also represented the filly’s only 100+ SP lifetime. If she’s truly come into her own, the Glorious One will have a big challenge on her hands. A good bet at 6-1.<\/p>\n
Also at 6-1 odds is simonlee’s<\/i> Troubleinparadise(IRE)<\/b>. The chestnut Barathea filly most recently ran second to Five Points in the Wooly Mammoth, but did win a listed stake two back at 8.5. She’s made four tries in graded company and has placed just once, but does have three listed stakes wins to her credit. She’s broken the 100 speed barrier twice (101 in that recent win and 106 in the Wooly Mammoth). Trouble has tried 9 furlongs twice and come up short each time. I’d love to see her try 10, she has the kind of steady and relentless closing run that could serve her well going a bit longer.<\/p>\n
Ravencard’s<\/i> Casa Bonita<\/b> started the tear off with a bang, running a huge second at the Equinics and following that up with another second in the Florida Oaks. The seconditis continued in the Bluegrass Oaks and the Sister Hen, making Casa’s last trip to the winner’s circle her first start of 2006 (in a listed stake). After a disappointing trip in the GI Exam last out on a good track, reports are Casa is sharp and ready to run. It will take a big effort from this deep-closing filly to stay with Five Points and Glorious Morning in the run to the wire, but Casa has the talent to do it. The brown Forestry filly is 7-1 on the morning line.<\/p>\n
Barb’s Baba Wawa<\/b> is the best offspring produced thus far by the stakes-placed Gilded Time mare Alycreed Time. Sired by Western Winter, this chestnut filly is owned by redhead<\/i>. She’s just over $100 bucks from hitting the $200k mark, and this race could see her pick up those missing dollars. Baba Wawa is coming off three straight wins (2 in listed stakes) but is making her graded stakes debut, and first start at a distance greater than a mile. Both of those recent stakes wins saw Baba break from the 4-post; oddly she does that again here. Baba tends to either go straight to the front or ease back to no worse than fourth or so, but the added distance as well as the jump in class is a serious question. 7-1 odds.<\/p>\n
Lakunza<\/b>, a brown filly by Bachelor Duke, represents the rioja<\/i> stable. She’s a stakes winner at 9f, and has tried graded company once. That try was her last start at 10 in the GI Hummingbird where Lakunza demonstrated she isn’t a big fan of off tracks. The drop back in distance as well as the fast track she’ll get here can only help. Like some of the big girls in the race, Lakunza is a deep closer, but she’s been inconsistent in terms of speed at this distance (she’s run between 82 and 102 at 9 furlongs). 9-1 odds.<\/p>\n
Bossross<\/i> bred his stakes-winning Mining mare Yelouana to Giant’s Causeway, producing Remember Yelouana(IRE)<\/b>, who is 9-1 on the morning line. The chestnut filly handily earned a 2-length victory (and a 100SP) in a listed stake at 9 furlongs two starts back. That excellent stakes debut made her owner confident enough to try the GI Hummingbird last time out, but Remember prefers off turf to off dirt and so lost by about 9 lengths. With a fast track and no other apparent speed in this race, she’s the likely pacesetter and could hold on until deep stretch. Unfortunately she hasn’t yet shown the speed necessary to be confident she can hold off the closers. Still, could easily hold on for a minor placing if she can gather up enough of a lead.<\/p>\n
Fooshi Coochi<\/b> has a cool name, and a nice race record. Run by the zooom<\/i> stable, the brown Fusaichi Pegasus filly just ran second in a 4-horse field in a North Dakota listed stake going 7.5 furlongs. She’s tried 9 just once and lost by over 14 lengths; her only try in graded company (in the GI Sky Beauty AHndicap at 6 furlongs) saw her run last by 4. It looks like Fooshi’s best distance is probably between 8 and 8.5 making a try at 9 not too farfetched. She tends to break a few steps slower than any speedballs so look for her to stay within a few lengths of the lead. 10-1 odds.<\/p>\n
Viperthree<\/i> sends his brown Ransom O’War filly Carbow Quest<\/b> into her first 9f race. SHe spent all of her 2yo season and half of this year on turf but when switched to dirt and immediately reeled off a nice win at a mile in an allowance. Two starts back she ran third at 9.5 in a listed stake after leading and fading in the stretch. Last start Carbow tried the GII Wooly Mammoth at 8.5 and didn’t ever really run, finishing seventh by over 12 lengths. When Carbow has run well on dirt she’s done it by grabbing an early lead or hanging just off the lead, then doing her level best to hold on to the wire. Look for her to hang out with Remember Yelouana on or near the lead.<\/p>\n
Pro Dubai<\/b> is kind of a puzzling filly. She was on fire as a 2yo, winning her division’s Breeder’s Bowl race and running second in the GI GSR Diamond. Capsized’s<\/i> E Dubai filly struggled in three graded tries including dismal finishes in the GI California Derby and GI Chestnut. Her owner took it easy with pro Dubai with a couple of allowance races once the filly looked back in form. Pro Dubai rewarded her trainer with a pair of solid allowance wins, and looks to be in better shape than ever. The 16-1 odds don’t adequately show just how good this filly could be here.<\/p>\n
Cozy Cat<\/b>, a nice Cat Thief filly out of a grade-one winning Red Ransom mare, has just one win for the year at 9.5 furlongs (albeit in a sloppy track), but hasn’t seen the winner’s circle in 8 starts. Goodtimes’s<\/i> filly’s last race at 8.5 showed a big improvement in SP, but she still finished more than 7 lengths out of the race. If that start represents a new level of maturity for the filly she could be coming into her own and could runn much better than her 17-1 odds suggest. <\/p>\n
The field longshot at 18-1 is Extremeless<\/b>, owned by mook<\/i>. She’s a Johannesburg filly still looking for her first black type. and unfortunately unlikely to get it in this race. She does have 5 wins in 18 starts, and she does have 3 places in stakes company. What she doesn’t have is much dirt experience. She started her career in a a MSW at 5 on dirt (she ran second by 3\/4 of a length), but hasn’t seen dirt since. Unless the surface change shocks Extremeless into an effort unheard of, she’s likely to run a solid but unspectacular race here. <\/p>\n
So many of the field are deep or midpack closers that there’s going to be a mad rush for the wire in the stretch. If the win margin is more than a length or so it’ll be a huge accomplishment. I really like Glorious Morning and Five Points to complete the exacta, with Casa Bonita or Pro Dubai likely to run third.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Glorious Morning, Pro Dubai, Five Points, and Casa Bonita headline second annual Memorial<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2816\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}