The Lake Placid – Grade II
SAR Race #6 1 1/16m InTurf Graded Stake
Purse $200.000 For Fillies Three Years Old.

1 First Royal Mb Stables Franco M 122 —

A consistent and lightly raced filly, she may be one of those that has been unnoticed in the HRP giant’s stable and could well take this opportunity to get among the stable’s stars in a race that has only drawn five runners. Her most recent win certainly smelt of improvement as she took on the older fillies and mares and taking advantage of a lower weight managed a fairly easy on speed one length win. The stable has taken this meet by the scruff of the neck, as dominant as ever at their favorite track, I would expect this one to go very close to winning from a gate she used to her advantage last time out.

2 Exulted Rene TwinTowersRacing Gaffalione T 122 —

As you would expect from this stable, this filly comes here without the flashy form, but she has shown enough that she could be a top three chance from a nice draw. She raced on speed at LS last time and was really tenacious in winning by a half-length, but she will have some competition from the horse inside her for that lead today and this is certainly a step up in grade.

3 Nurse Hatchet D J C Racing Stables Geroux F 122 —

Came off the back of a little win at GG to run third in the ONT Colleen last time in a similar race to this. That good run was unexpected by the odds monkeys as she went off at over 200/1 but it does show just how close the ability is between overnights and stakes races. The trainer goes again in this race and why not as she certainly has no worse chance than she had before.

4 Tokushima Nakamura Stables Velazquez J R 122 —

The two with the most exposed stakes form fill the two outside gates which makes this race interesting even with a small field. A good fifth in the Wonder Again off the back of an ungraded stakes win, she then ran well to be second in the Lake George last time and that looks good form for this similar race. Her works are pretty much the same as everything else so there are no clues there, but she has shown she can live in this sort of grade and comes from a stable that knows how to win stakes races.

5 Extreme Metal Blazin D Lezcano J 122 —

A length behind Tokushima in the Wonder Again, it may have been the wet track that affected her that day as she had come into the race off a strong win in the grade three Providencia Stakes. She was a little disappointing in the San Clemente Handicap last time but may have found the mile a bit sharp. The danger here is the wide gate AI may drop her out the back early on but as long as she doesn’t get more than a few lengths behind she has a strong enough finish to make that ground up down the stretch.

SUMMARY

I like Extreme Metal here although the chance that the wide gate may send her too far back is a worry. The safer bet may be First Royal who will be right up on speed and saving ground on the rail.

Categories: Grade II, STAKES ARTICLES