Highlighting the Virginia race card this week, we have the Seattle Rallying Stakes. The race is for fillies and mares, four years and older, and will run over ten furlongs of turf. After another fine week of weather in Virginia, the turf is rated as firm, and the race will carry a $45000 purse. This is the third annual running of the event, returning to Virginia last year after missing the 2006 season. It is a race that historically sees some excellent competition, with the 2005 running seeing three of six entries going on to become millionaires, and overall six graded winners participating in the first two runnings. Last year\u2019s race was won by five year old mare Alychant<\/B> behind a powerful close, her second to last start before going into foal to Mineshaft. This year\u2019s race draws a field of eight, with a single four year old filly facing off against the older mares. It showcases three of the top 100 ranked older female classic runners, and it looks like oddsmakers simply got out their dartboards for this one. All eight entries fall between 4\/1 and 7\/1 odds, so there is plenty of room for debate over who is going to bring this one home. With a long odds favorite, the payouts should be fair at the betting window, and while the exotics won\u2019t break the bank, we should see some decent value for a two dollar bet, if handicappers can pick between this close knit field.<\/P>
\u00a0<\/P>
PP 1) Wondergirl Cheryl<\/B> Sired by Sakhee, Trained by wonder2. Wondergirl Cheryl is a seven year old mare, seeing action in her fortieth start in this race. She has five prior stakes victories, with her most recent coming at this distance against the boys last April. Her last ten starts have seen her run to a 2-3-1-1-0 record, with five 100+ speed figures, capped by a 105.7 in a stakes last July. Her last race was her first of the 2008 season, an A1n at eleven furlongs against the boys in Florida, where she simply ran away from a field of eight, bringing home a seven length victory. She hasn\u2019t raced on dirt since early in her three year old season and turf racing has been her claim to fame. She has shown herself capable anywhere in the classic distance range. Her best speeds, along with five victories in eight starts have come in the mile range, but in this distance range, she has seven top three finishes in fourteen tries, along with four wins. She is a fast starter, who is generally at her best when she has a clear cut lead to work with early. She has the stamina to hold on late in a race of this distance if she is pressed early, but she usually doesn\u2019t fare well after an early speed duel. It looks like she should pretty much have free reign to set the pace in this one, which makes it just to her liking. Look for her to open up a decent cushion early, but the question is whether it will be enough against some of the younger legs here.<\/P>
\u00a0<\/P>
PP 2) Bellafiga<\/B> Sired by Dixieland Band, Trained by cotevol. Bellaviga is a five year old mare, facing career start number forty seven here. She has six career stakes wins, the most recent coming last December in a stakes at this same distance. Over the course of her last ten starts, she has posted a record of 2-2-2-0-2, with a top speed of 101.3 earned two starts back. Her last run was a stakes race at this distance in Indiana, where she was really never able to get started, finishing sixth in a field of nine. Turf has been her home since she broke her maiden there in her second two year old start, and she has never looked back. This distance range is her money race, and she has six wins and eleven top three finishes in twenty starts in this distance range. She runs as a midpack closer, but her close has been spotty at best over her last several races, and non-existent in her three starts this season. She is still capable of posting some decent, though not spectacular numbers, but it looks as if wear and tear is starting to take its toll on this iron mare this season. I can\u2019t recommend her in this field against some mares still running some consistent 100+ speeds.<\/P>
\u00a0<\/P>
PP 3) Semi Charmed Pye(IRE)<\/B> Sired by Theatrical(IRE), Trained by lordpye4. Semi Charmed Pye is a five year old mare, taking the gate for her twenty fifth career run here. She brings two previous stakes victories to the table, her most recent a Grade 3 win at this distance in Australia to kick off her 2008 season. She brings in a record of 3-2-1-1-1 from her last ten starts, with three 100+ speeds, topped off by a 106.5 in an allowance race last September. Her last start was a stakes at this distance in Indiana, where she hung tough most of the way but couldn\u2019t really mount a close, finishing fifth in a field of nine. She\u2019s taken her chances on dirt, finishing dead last in both tries, only reinforcing her turf preference. She has only had two career starts under ten furlongs and her money race has been the twelve furlong plus marathon. In this distance range, she has a win and a show in four tries. She prefers to close from the midpack, and her close has been fairly consistent up until her last four starts. Three of them were against graded competition though, and she did win one of those in textbook fashion. She\u2019s looking at the same type of field here, and she is going to need to bring her best to be a serious threat down the stretch.<\/P>
\u00a0<\/P>
PP 4) Silver Glory(KY) <\/B>Sired by Silver Ghost, Trained by lenny28. Silver Glory(KY) is the youngster of this group in age, as a four year old filly, and in experience, as she makes her seventeenth career start here. Those seventeen starts have been enough to get her a top 100 ranking in the division though, with two stakes wins and a show at graded level. In her last ten starts, she carries a 3-1-3-0-1 record, with four 100+ speeds, capped by a 102.8 in her last start. That race was an eight and a half furlong stakes outing in Tennessee, where she pretty much just held her position throughout, finishing third in a field of eight. She has never been off turf in her career, and with a 37.5% winning rate, and thirteen top three finishes, there is certainly not much there to recommend a surface switch. Her race of choice has been the mile range, and this will be her longest start by a furlong and a half. She adds another midpack closer to this field, and her close has been a rollercoaster ride over her last several, with some beautiful runs surrounded by some where she just never really found the energy in the second half. Her optimal striking distance is three to five lengths at the half, and she has gotten in trouble when she finds herself out much deeper. On the positive side she has been putting up the best speed numbers of her career, with 100+ runs in her last four, one of the most consistent here. On the downside though, she has nearly an extra full furlong to the half post in this one, most likely leaving her out more deeply than she would like as they turn into the second half. Can see her as a major threat here against the veteran runners at this distance.<\/P>
\u00a0<\/P>
PP 5) Meatball Hero<\/B> Sired by Trempolino, Trained by bigted2. Meatball Hero is a six year old mare, running in her fiftieth career start in this race. She carries a divisional ranking of number 12, with seven career stakes wins, three of them at graded level. Her most recent stakes win was in her last start of the 2007 season. Her last ten starts have garnered her a record of 4-0-1-2-0 with five 100+ speeds, highlighted by a pair of 107.0 speeds posted in August and December of last year. Her last start was a stakes race at this distance in New Jersey, where she found herself in a big hole from the break, and just couldn\u2019t turn it around, finishing sixth in a field of eight. She\u2019s had her share of dirt runs, which managed only to drop her into the claiming ranks, but she blossomed into a turf standout under the guidance of her third trainer. She has performed well at all of the classic distances, with her big race being in the nine furlong range, but this distance range has earned her five victories and a place in nine tries, including a pair of Grade 2 wins. She runs as a midpack closer, but more often than not, when she has managed to fire in the second half recently, she has fired early and not been able to hold it down the stretch. Her last victory came wire to wire in a field of closers, with her only other notable recent start being her Grade 3 victory back in early December in a race that was a full furlong shorter than this one. Look for another early second half break here, but look for her to have trouble climbing out of the early hole.<\/P>
\u00a0<\/P>
PP 6) Doubtful Affair<\/B> Sired by Dubai Destination, Trained by silverrazor. Doubtful Affair is a five year old mare, installed her as the slim favorite in her twenty ninth career run. She has one prior stakes win, coming around this time last year, which was also her last victory. Her last ten starts have been a mixed bag, with a record of 0-2-3-2-1, with three 100+ speeds, with a best of 106.9 earned early last December. Her last run was her first start of this season, an eight furlong stakes in Rhode Island, where a piece of the early lead in a field of closers cost her late, finishing a fading fourth in a field of five. Turf has been her home, with nothing in three dirt starts to recommend that surface. Her big race has been in the eight to nine furlong range, and in three tries at this distance she hasn\u2019t collected a check or broken the 90 speed barrier. She likes to run from head head of the midpack, but on the rare occasions when she has shown some closing effort recently, she hasn\u2019t been able to hold it into the stretch. She has some of the highest recent speeds in this field, which is probably what installed her as the favorite, but if past experience is any indicator, this race is going to be a bit too long for her. Look for a slow fade from her as they cross the halfway mark in this one.<\/P>
\u00a0<\/P>
PP 7) Green Means Gove(SAF)<\/B> Sired by Horse Chestnut(SAF), Trained by nijinskyii. Green Means Gove(SAF) is a lightly raced six year old mare, stepping to the track for her twenty first career start in this race. She has four career stakes wins, most recently last January. She comes into this one not having raced in nearly a year, with her last race coming in the middle of last March. Her last ten starts takes us back to late in her three year old season, with a record of 4-3-0-0-1, and a top speed of 104.2 earned in April of the 2006 season. Her last run in March of 2007 was an A3n right here in Virginia, where she finished a close in sixth in a very competitive field of ten. After breaking her maiden at first asking on dirt, she could never find her legs at allowance level on that surface, and a switch to turf earned her top three finishes in seven of her next ten. This will be her longest career outing by a full furlong, with most of her success coming in the eight to nine furlong range. She runs a stalker\u2019s pace, usually pressing the early leader until they begin to flag, then jumping up to grab the lead. She hasn\u2019t had much success without at least a piece of the lead early, though she has shown some capability to close short distances just past the half if not pressured too much by the deeper closers. She is a wild card in this race, and it is tough to say how she will perform, with a lot of rust to shake off and an extra furlong of distance in front of her. <\/P>
\u00a0<\/P>
PP 8) Reconciliation<\/B> Sired by Cozzene, Trained by genesis. Reconciliation is a five year old mare, set to make her twenty seventh career start in this outing. This will be her third career stakes try, and she is still seeking that first elusive victory at this level of competition. She has put up a record of 4-1-1-2-0 in her last ten starts, with a top speed of 100.1 earned late last October. Her last start was an A3t at nine furlongs in Ottawa, where she closed up eight furlongs in the second half after digging herself a big hole, before settling for fourth in a field of ten. She had one dirt try during her three year old season that was simply dismal, and has stuck to grass running since that point. This will be her longest turf run to date, with her only longer run coming in her sole dirt start. It is hard to say whether the surface or the distance was to blame for that one, but her breeding suggests that turf is definitely a better place for her and she should have some stamina. She is the only true deep closer in this field, and for the most part, her close has been very consistent. She\u2019s had some trouble climbing out of some of the deeper holes she has found herself in, and in that regard, the extra distance and the fast early pace aren\u2019t going to help. While she hasn\u2019t posted the best speed figures in this field, she has been one of the most consistent closers running in this race. At 6\/1 she could be worth a bet here and may have the best chance of running down the early speed in this one.<\/P><\/BODY><\/HTML><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
8 fillies & mares set to do battle in tight knit field<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":472,"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":[2,3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews","category-reviews","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5479","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\/472"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}