The Goldwood Stakes ($100.000 Purse)
MTH- For Fillies and Mares Three Years Old and Upward
Five and a Half Furlongs on the Turf
June 22, 2024

A field of five are set to go to post in the first ever running of the Goldwood Stakes. This is a good chance for female turf sprinters to run for a $100.000 purse and get a big stake win for themselves. Since we don’t have any past history of the race to talk about, we might as well get right to taking a look at our field:

1- Marie Laveau (Mo Mentum Farm, ridden by J Bravo)- Claimed by the trainer for $12.500 after running at low or mid-level tracks and has stepped up while running in the Mo Mentum silks. The trainer gave her a chance against better right away, and picked up back-to-back seconds, highlighted by the $100.000 Cortez at FG where she lost the head bob picture at the wire (wild finish there, by the way). Last month, she went wire to wire in a starter allowance win and should be ready for stake company again. Though it may be an issue that she carries notably more weight than key rivals.

2- Dont Mind A Dime (Asgar, ridden by N Juarez)- Since being moved to the turf in December of last year, this filly has gone back and forth between sprinting and running a mile. She’s looked good at both and did win the $100.000 China Doll Stakes by three lengths at a longer distance in March. But sprinting has been good for her as well, and she narrowly missed in the Grade 3 Soaring Softly at AQU, finishing second by a nose.

3- Shes So Pure (TwinTowersRacing, ridden by I Castillo)- Winning has not come easy to this filly, as she has only done so once over 18 starts, and needed many races before she ultimately broke her maiden. The trainer knew he had something better, so raced her in stakes even more getting a win a couple times, but eventually she broke her maiden conventionally in start #15. Since then, she’s run graded a couple times on the dirt but has not shown much. Only turf sprint saw her run third in a three-horse field. Doesn’t help that she carries six more pounds than three of her rivals, as well.

4- Disconnected (Mb Stables, ridden by J A Vargas Jr)- It didn’t take her as long to break her maiden as Shes So Pure did, but Disconnected did need six such starts herself. There were three seconds where she was in a photo at the wire, so she was mainly just disconnected from good luck early on. In her turf debut, she won for the first time, and then carried it into the $225.000 Mamzelle where she was second again. If all it took for her was a surface move, then she is one to watch not only here, but going forward.

5- Solar Cruz (Smokey Stover, ridden by Sa Camacho)- Winning is something that this filly has not had a hard time doing, with four victories over her six starts. All of those come in overnights but do include a nice win in a CD optional claimer last month for just a little less of a purse than this race goes for. Her lone stake attempt was two back, in the $100.000 Melody Of Colors at GP and she should be one of the top contenders here.

Prediction: 2-4-5-1

— NS

Categories: STAKES ARTICLES, Ungraded