Ladies Marathon- Grade III
1 5/16 Miles Turf Stake Purse $2,000.000 Fillies And Mares Three-Year-Olds And Up. At KD
Ladies Marathon came into being in 2022 as a $550.000 marathon with all the same restrictions as today. It was boosted up to $1,000.000 the next year, and this year has doubled to $2,000.000. The winner of the inaugural event was Smokey Stover’s then six-year-old Number Nine, a wonderful mare which won the BC Fillies & Mares Turf in 2021 and $3,206.340 in her career. The second year went to TwinTowersRacing’s Stinky Rene and last year went to Black N Gold Stable’s Lady Hilltopper which returns this year to defend her title. And that looks a bang-up defense indeed as she will be challenged by TwinTowersRacing’s Ponzi Scheme which looks to be at the top of her form for this showdown between two feminine giants.
Horse Owner Odds SRF
Lady Hilltopper Black N Gold Stable *2-1 100
Ponzi Scheme TwinTowersRacing 5-2 101
November Storm Alydar Stables 3-1 95
Nijinsky Team 7 Illusions 5-1 94
Lonestar Annie Alydar Stables 9-2 97
One Spirit Nakamura Stables 6-1 97
Ava Royalty Stables 8-1 93
Secured Entry Mb Stables 10-1 95
Absolute Zero Rock Creek 20-1 92
1 Ponzi Scheme TwinTowersRacing 101
Class v class as Ponzi Scheme meets Lady Hilltopper, and the only question is which will like the distance best. Last year at this time Ponzi Scheme chose something a little shorter and won the 1 1/4-mile grade one Taylor Stakes at WO while Lady Hilltopper won this race. They both met in the BC Fillies & Mares Turf next with Ponzi finishing third and Hilltopper fourth barely a playing card separating them. Each of the lasses won the lead up race to this with Ponzi repeating her Taylor Stakes win. She stayed marathon sharp all year by winning her other two 1 3/8 mile plus affairs and overall shows a little more experience with the long route races.
2 November Storm Mb Stables 95
November Storm arrives on back-to-back 1 1/2-mile victories to make him a top threat. You might wave off the $100.000 Possibly Perfect Stakes at SA as an ungraded stakes, but the grade two Glens Falls at SAR is nothing to sneeze at, and her marathon body of work is to be taken seriously.
3 Lille Mo Mentum Farm 100
South Beach Racing got a tremendous deal when they acquired graded stakes winner Lille for $1.000 in the Smokey Stover dispersal. Mo Mentum Farm may have gotten an even better deal when they picked her up for $100.000 in a claim in April and immediately placed her second in the grade one Derby City Distaff at CD and won the grade two Chicago Stakes also at CD. They then entered her in her very first turf stakes the grade two Beverly D at CNL which she won showing turf and route interest and heaven knows what else. She may be selling T shirts in the parking lot.
4 Lady Hilltopper Black N Gold Stable 100
Lady Hilltopper’s half of the head-to-head with Ponzi Scheme has the Lady following up their encounter in the BC Fillies & Mares Turf with a powerful victory in the grade one Matriarch at DMR while Ponzi Scheme ran into trouble in her next, one of three shorter distance beat downs during the year, while Lady Hilltopper continued on smoothly, never worse than fourth, never farther back than a length, granted the maximum distance along the way was 1 3/16 mile. That might be the knock for this race, this mare knows marathon distances, though, and almost always adapts her running style to deeper closer and times it well. I think she will bring that top form from the Beverly D into this race and just prevail in what should be a dynamite match-up.
5 One Spirit Nakamura Stables 97
One Spirit is a nice young router on her way up, somewhat unfamiliar with marathon type races, although she came within a half-length of winning the $1,500.000 Dueling Grounds Oaks locally at today’s race distance. She comes into this race in great form but at all shorter distance races. Bear in mind, though, she was in the same form approaching the other 1 5/16-mile race and she changed her tactics and nearly caught the winner at the wire.
6 Ava Royalty Stables 93
A lightly raced three-year-old, Ava showed herself to be a deep closer with immaculate timing winning the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf at DMR last year. Since then, she’s been taking on three-year-olds in various turf graded stakes, and she comes here as beaten favourite in the 1 1/8-mile grade three Pucker Up Stakes at ELP. Today will be her first test against older and first time going farther than 1 1/8 miles, so she has a lot to gain (a three-pound allowance) and a lot to prove.
7 Absolute Zero Rock Creek 92
Winner of four of six starts, this three-year-old has never seen this kind of competition. After losing her virgin race on dirt, she won a couple of low-level turf races before losing at FG. Rigging Racing decided to risk her in a $12,500 claimer after that and lost her to Keikowin Racing who sold her to her current owner for $37.000 a couple of months later. Rock Creek sent her to ELP and she impressed with win number four, a one mile turf open allowance, so much so that they sent her here for her baptism of fire.
8 Nijinsky Team 7 Illusions 94
Now, if you think this race deserves a marathon specialist, here you go. They sent her in a mile race back last June and she ran second as the favourite because she didn’t know the race was over. Her last four races were at 1 1/2 miles. This race may be too short for her. Her last run was second in the grade two Glens Falls at SAR. In spite of her long route preferences, she is not your normal deep closer, more a stalker/closer, even went wire-to-wire at 1 1/2 miles once.
9 Lonestar Annie Alydar Stables 97
Lonestar Annie, after a long career of minor stakes races and allowances, discovered turf and won the grade one Gamely Stakes at SA, only to have her hopes knocked down in the grade one Diana. So here she is, adding some distance to see if that makes the difference.
10 Secured Entry Mb Stables 95
So, here we go again, Powerhouse Mb Stables meets with Free Side Powerhouse Spinetingling and the result is the purchase of Secured Entry for $30.000: an eight-year-old mare, but with only 16 races in her career and a record of 8 wins and a total of $13.920 in earnings. Mb Stables turns around and puts her on the turf for the first time in her long life and she runs second in an expensive WO allowance race. So, then to the grade three Beverly D at CNL where she finishes a late closing third, looking every bit like she’d like to continue on. Two races and a free track mare is a grade two place runner.
Categories: Grade II, STAKES ARTICLES