By Joe Bianca
Castleton Lyons's Chi Town Lady (Verrazano), the lone stakes winner thus far in a potential-laden field of 12, will try to make it three-for-three to start her career in Saturday's GIII Matron S. over six furlongs on the Belmont turf.
Debuting as an overwhelming 1-5 on the Keeneland dirt this April, the chestnut obliged with a three-length graduation and, after a length break, overcame a stumbling start to score a 1 3/4-length success in the Bolton Landing S. over yielding grass Aug. 18 at Saratoga.
An array of contenders will likely give her all she can handle, however, starting with narrow morning-line favorite Bubble Rock (More Than Ready). Running a winning race in her debut Aug. 13 at the Spa when making a wide run to the lead before settling for second, she found no equals when earning her diploma by 3 1/4 lengths with an 84 Beyer there Sept. 3.
That number is just one point behind the field-best figure of Lady Danae (Klimt), who got an 85 when defeating Bubble Rock in that aforementioned Aug. 13 heat. The $210,000 OBS April pickup flattened out to fifth as a heavy 11-10 chalk in the Ainsworth S. Sept. 12 at Kentucky Downs, a race out of which the second and third finishers, Mystic Eyes (Maclean's Music) and Poppy Flower (Lea) re-oppose here.
Makin My Move (Carpe Diem)'s reputation preceded her when debuting against New York-breds as a 5-4 chalk on the Saratoga main track Aug. 20, and the Chester and Mary Broman homebred did not let her backers down, rocketing away to a geared-down 12 1/2-length romp. She tries turf for the first time here for trainer John Kimmel, and has certainly trained like she enjoys it, rattling off four straight sizzling works on Saratoga's Oklahoma turf training track, including a :46 flat (1/29) half-mile Sept. 3.
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