By Joe Bianca
Way back in June 2013, the connections of Lady Lara (Ire) (Excellent Art {GB}) thought enough of their 2-year-old filly to try her in the G3 Albany Stakes going six furlongs at Royal Ascot in her career debut. She was hardly disgraced, finishing eighth of 19 runners at 80-1.
The favorite that day, sent off at 7-4, was Sandiva (Ire) (Footstepsinthesand {GB}), an impressive winner of her first two career starts at Nottingham and Naas. The chestnut filly was no match for winner Kiyoshi (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), but still showed well to be second, 4 3/4 lengths in front of Lady Lara.
Fast forward to October 2014, with Lady Lara making her United States debut in the Pebbles S. at Belmont. She was dynamite in that race, closing from well back into a slow pace to win at 9-1. Running fourth behind her was Sandiva.
The two fillies have hooked up five more times since then, with Lady Lara finishing ahead of her counterpart on four of those occasions. The most memorable of their meetings was in this race, the Grade II Honey Fox S., last year, when Sandiva made an early four-wide run into the pace and opened a clear lead in the stretch, only to be nailed by her rival inside the final sixteenth for her only loss in four starts over the Gulfstream grass.
Now mares, the two will line up against one another for the eighth time in this year's renewal, alongside six other middle-tier turf lasses.
Al Shaqab Racing's Sandiva is coming off of a good effort when tried over dirt for the first time, finishing second to Penwith (Bernardini) in the GII Royal Delta S. despite a slow break and wide runs around both turns.
“We thought she ran very well on the dirt last time, but she's also had a productive campaign over the Gulfstream turf course, so we felt like timing-wise this suited her a little better than something else on the dirt,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “We'll bring her back on the grass for this one. I think she's one of those versatile sorts that runs well on any surface. Her record at Gulfstream is quite good.”
Swettenham Stud's Lady Lara was most recently seen running second to champion turf mare Tepin (Bernstein) in the GIII Lambholm South Endeavour S. at Tampa Bay Downs.
Adding to the intrigue of the race is Long Lake Stable and Beacon Hill Thoroughbreds' 'TDN Rising Star' Tammy the Torpedo (More Than Ready), a lightly raced 4-year-old coming off back-to-back local stakes wins in the Dec. 19 Tropical Park Oaks S. and Feb. 6 GIII Suwanee River S., showing a new dimension by going wire-to-wire in the latter.
“With the lack of pace in the race, we left it to Joel (Rosario) to place her, but she doesn't need the lead,” trainer Chad Brown said. “She's been training very well since the Suwannee River. We'll just play the break [Saturday] and see how it goes.”
Phaedrus Flights' Celestine (Scat Daddy), winner of three listed stakes as a 3-year-old in 2015, is another contender. She was just outgamed by Tammy the Torpedo in the Tropical Park Oaks, then ran much better than it looks on paper Feb. 27 in the Sand Springs S., making the first move into a pace that collapsed and still holding well for third.
Other stakes winners entered include Jackpot Ranch and Mike G. Rutherford's Mississippi Delta (Giant's Causeway) and Ramona S. Bass's A Little Bit Sassy (More Than Ready. Longshots E B Ryder (Bluegrass Cat) and Elusive Collection (Elusive Quality) round out the field.
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