La Prevoyante Handicap (Grade 3)- $200.000 Purse
For Fillies and Mares Four Year Olds and Upward
GP- One Mile and One Half on the Inner Turf
January 28, 2017
Before we get to running the Pegasus here at GP on Saturday, a group of five female turf stars will be going to post in the 12th running of the La Prevoyante Handicap after a one year hiatus. It is a race that will rest their endurance, going the maximum twelve furlongs. The race was not run last year, perhaps due to not filling, and a purse that is double what it last was, in 2015, may have enticed some to head to this race. The only trainer to win this race more then once was Barcelona Farms, doing so in 2010 and 2015 and there are some well known trainers who do not have their names on the list of winners just yet. Let’s take a look at our runners now for this year’s race.
#1- Pip Wisdom (Chili King Stables, ridden by J Rosario)- On the rail, the Pip Boy is the low weight of the field, carrying 117 pounds. In her career, she has won three of thirteen, but has fallen short in her two attempts at graded competition previously. Pip Wisdom seems to like to come from well off the pace but she might want to be careful not to be too far behind early, because she’s with a lot of other runners here who are going to look to do the same thing. She has a knack for finishing third, it appears.
#2- Duracell (TwinTowersRacing, ridden by R Bejarano)- Thanks to winning her last start, the Grade 2 Mrs Revere at CD over Thanksgiving weekend, Duracell finds herself as one of the highweights, at 121 points, for this race. Her career turned around last spring, when TwinTowers claimed her away from Blushing Meadows for just $20.000. After the claim, he began sending her long, and she has won three and been second twice in her five starts since. This will be the longest she has ever gone, and even though she’s not the Energizer bunny, she should be able to keep going and going and going.
#3- Condottieris Fox (Hawaiian Shirt Guy, ridden by J J Castellano)- Castellano still sits at under 10% for the year, but he will be aboard one of the favorites here in the La Prevoyante. As a four year old, Condottieris Fox won two out of eleven, but she did seem to always find a way to be in the top four. While she has usually gone long, the highlight of her season was a win in the $350.000 KD Ladies Sprint in September. She does not back down from going up against the best, and that is a big reason to like her a lot in this field.
#4- Aaract (Crocker Ggs, ridden by J R Leparoux)- Aaract has had a pretty similar career path to Duracell in that she was found in a claimer, for a similar amount ($18.000), and had her career turned around afterwards. What Crocker Ggs was able to do was a simple surface change, and it paid dividends immediately when she won the $75.000 CTT Handicap. Don’t let that purse size deceive you, because the likes of both Devil Wears Prada and Rose Of Glamorgan were in that race as well. She has not won since, but she did place second in two graded events, including the Grade 1 Flower Bowl in October. I wish she was coming into this race off of that one, as the last run, the Grade 1 American Oaks could have been better. She is most definitely a threat.
#5- Dragonville (Drabfantasy, ridden by J R Velazquez)- We round out this field with the well accomplished Dragonville. This filly ran in the BC Fillies and Mares Turf last fall and had the lead coming into the stretch before dropping back to fifth. She only won two races last year, and that actually surprised me a little bit as I had thought she has done more. A race at the beginning of this month with her distance cut back significantly proves to be a throw out, but it makes you wonder a little if the trainer is second guessing her a bit. When I first saw the entries I thought I was going to declare her the favorite, but I am not so sure now.
Prediction: 4-3-5-1
— NS
Categories: Grade III, STAKES ARTICLES
