3 filly stakes take center stage on weekend horse racing schedule

Three-year-old fillies take center stage in what otherwise is a slow weekend for Breeders’ Cup preps.

Saratoga’s $500,000, Grade I TVG Alabama Stakes at 1¼ miles today attracted only six entrants, but among them are the 1-2 finishers in the Kentucky Oaks (Plum Pretty, St. John’s River) and a filly who defeated colts in Canada’s $1 million Queen’s Plate (Inglorious).
But the 9-5 favorite in the race for 3-year-old fillies is It’s Tricky, who has lost only once in six career starts, demolishing the top-class Turbulent Descent in Belmont’s Acorn and edging Plum Pretty in Saratoga’s Coaching Club American Oaks.The Acorn would be her third Grade I triumph.
It’s Tricky, trained by Lexington native Kiaran McLaughlin for Godolphin Stable, could become the sixth filly to sweep the Acorn, the CCA Oaks and the Alabama, the last being Sky Beauty in 1993.
The CCA Oaks now is 11/8 miles, but McLaughlin says the daughter of 2003 Horse of the Year Mineshaft should handle the Alabama’s extra eighth-mile.
“She has a lot of try in her and heart,” he said.
“I feel like another eighth-mile is not going to hurt us. Hopefully it helps us.”
Plum Pretty, generally based in California with trainer Bob Baffert, has three works over Saratoga’s main track since her narrow CCA Oaks defeat.
“I think it’s kind of hard coming in right off the plane on this track,” said Baffert assistant Jim Barnes. “And she ran huge, she ran a winning race, she ran her eyes out.”
Inglorious is the only horse to have run 1¼ miles, doing so in the Queen’s Place. But while she’s 5 for 5 over Woodbine’s Polytrack, she has one second in two starts on dirt.
Del Mar Oaks: Summer Soiree, 10th in the Kentucky Oaks, has found a home on turf. After winning Monmouth’s Boiling Springs by eight lengths in her grass debut, she headed to Del Mar for today’s $250,000, Grade I turf race at 11/8 miles. The top five finishers in Hollywood’s American Oaks are back, headed by dead-heat winners Cambina and Nereid.
Also in the field is Churchill Downs’ Regret winner Bizzy Caroline, who was fifth in the American Oaks by a total of three-quarters of a length