KD Ladies Turf (Grade 3)- $1,500.000 Purse
KD- For Fillies and Mares Three Years Old and Upward
One Mile on the Turf
August 31, 2024
The great La Terrifiant returns to the track on Saturday for the 68th time in her career and hopes that this will be the race that pushes her over the $10,000.000 mark in lifetime earnings. Any finish in the top three would accomplish that while fourth would get her agonizingly close. Nine others will be hoping to keep that from happening here in the KD Ladies Turf. This is the eighth time that the race has been run, moving up from a $350.000 ungraded stake when it debuted in 2017, to the new high for the purse, which is this $1,500.000 amount. Two past winners of the race will be taking part, and not surprisingly, La Terrifiant is one of them, having done so in 2020, while the other is Wander for Mb Stables, doing so last year. Usually, trying to go back-to-back makes you the headliner, but not when La Terrifiant is in the house. Let’s meet our field of ten:
1- Lousiana Woo (Invicta Group Llc, ridden by U Rispoli)- On the fourth of July, Lousiana Woo celebrated by winning the $150.000 Perfect String at AQU, which led to her placement a month later in the KD Preview Ladies Turf Mile at ELP. In that field of five, Lousiana Woo finished second, two lengths behind Not A Big Deal. She hopes to turn the tables on that one here and has taken on some of the elite horses in the division during her career. Not going to be the favorite in here, and she could be tempting at bigger odds. After all, she was 226/1 in the Perfect String.
2- Lorient (TwinTowersRacing, ridden by M J Sanchez)- She’s not a stranger to the turf, but she has not been on the surface for a while, last competing on the grass a year ago when she struggled in the Grade 2 Mabee Stakes. Lorient is one of those horses who has been very good in overnights but has not been able to get good results at the stake level, consistently. In the spring, she went back-to-back in the $100.000 Correction and Grade 3 Distaff Handicap, each at AQU, but has not been able to build on that.
3- Villeneuve (Mo Mentum Farm, ridden by T Conner)- The veteran five-year-old mare will make her 31st career start here and needs to better than she has been recently. In three of her last four starts, she has finished five lengths behind the winner, which in our virtual world, is a lot. The one race that is not part of that is an effort that she will need to duplicate, running a strong second in the Grade 1 Just A Game, beaten only by Demanding Commander. She’s seen a lot of wet tracks of late, and it is possible that trend continues here.
4- Demanding Commander (Mb Stables, ridden by W T Buick)- Hard to go against this five-year-old mare based on how she has been running of late. Ever since she struggled in the BC Fillies and Mares Turf, Demanding Commander has been dominant, with four wins and a second over her the five starts afterwards. That’s mostly a stretch of graded races and includes the Grade 1 Just A Game. Last time out was the race where she finished second, but there is never any shame in doing that in the Grade 1 Diana at SAR. In a tight photo at the wire, Poetic Panther got the better of her that day. She’s still at the top of her game, and down the road will certainly look to redeem herself for that BC performance last year.
5- Omnibus (High Voltage, ridden by J Graham)- We saw her last year in the KD Ladies Turf, and she finished in the middle of the field. Since then, she has only won once in eight starts, that being in the Grade 3 Suwannee River at GP last December, but overall, that stretch of races sees her hitting the board more often than not, or at least getting the fourth-place check. We really haven’t seen her dropped in class, either so we know she can run with this type of field, but seems to just need a little more, or a little luck, to beat all of them. I would have liked to have seen more than a fourth last time out, in the KD Preview Ladies Turf Mile, though.
6- La Terrifiant (Smokey Stover, ridden by A R Rodriguez)- Whenever La Terrifiant is in a race, she has to be considered one of the favorites to get the victory and everyone reading this knows her name. Last time out, she was third in the Diana, and within a length of the winner, so no worries about recent form. Her potential story here goes beyond this race as she looks to eclipse the $10,000.000 mark in career earnings. She’s third all-time right now (and the highest earning female) with $9,937.000, so any finish in the top three gets her there, with fourth putting her three bucks shy. She would not crack the top two all-time with a win, but she would come very close to second place Alpha Ultimo. She’s nine years old, but keeps on getting it done, and first place Bronze Sabre is not out of reach.
7- Poetic Panther (Maletto, ridden by Jam Rodriguez)- It can be hard to follow up La Terrifiant in the racing form, because no matter how good you are, her accolades will make you feel inferior. Poetic Panther may not be approaching in $10,000.000 in earnings, but she is entering the KD Ladies Turf off an impressive victory, defeating both La Terrifiant and Demanding Commander in the Grade 1 Diana at SAR. If she did it before, there is no reason to think that she cannot do it again, and she enters this race on a four-race win streak. Prior to the Diana, she won the Grade 3 Eatontown at MTH. Having said all of that, her work here on the 21st concerns me a bit, but there could be valid reasons for it.
8- Not A Big Deal (Mb Stables, ridden by R Bejarano)- Part of a strong group of three that Mb Stables is bringing to this race, and Not A Big Deal will be hoping that her win in the KD Preview Ladies Turf Mile was indeed a preview of what is going to happen here. Most of her career has been on the dirt, and it was only this April where the six-year-old made her turf debut. A win here would likely mean she won’t be back on the main track for a while, but she has some very tough company to try and bring down.
9- Wander (Mb Stables, ridden by S Elliott)- Last year, Wander picked up the win here in the KD Ladies Turf, and that was during a period where she was at her best. Prior to that race, she also won the Grade 2 Ballston, and a little later on, she got another victory, coming in the Grade 3 Cardinal at CD. Despite all of that, she never did run in the BC but that may have only been because of the three entry per stable rule. Last month, she won the Grade 3 Matchmaker at MTH, but has been within a length of the winner in her last four races, a stretch that also includes a pair of Grade 1’s: the Wiley and the Gamely. Therefore, she is not slowing down at all, and she should be considered a strong threat in this race, but this field is stacked, and there are many that look very promising.
10- Scalp (Spankys Barn, ridden by J Rosario)- Scalp would seem to be a better option if were looking at this race a few months ago, after she was third in the Grade 1 Wiley. All seemed well with her at that point, with consistent results before that race. However, given the strength of this field, and the two results since the Wiley, Scalp is not as appealing. We can dismiss the Phipps effort due to the surface switch, but she was mediocre at best in the Grade 2 Nassau Stakes. Yielding turf is not an excuse for her, as she had done well on wet tracks historically. Scalp is intriguing if her odds climb, because she can most certainly remind us of her Wiley form and works say she can. But this field is stacked, and I have to look elsewhere.
Prediction: 4-6-7-9
— NS
Categories: Grade III, STAKES ARTICLES
