3-year-old fillies will go one mile on the turf for Friday's $350,000 GII Valley View Stakes at Keeneland in the penultimate weekend before the Breeders' Cup. Last year, in its first rendition run at one mile (the race was previously held going 1 1/16 miles), Chad Brown's Surge Capacity (Flintshire {GB}) spring-boarded from victory into becoming a next-out Grade I winner in the Dec. 3 GI Matriarch Stakes. A full field of 12 (along with four also-eligibles) will look to do the same.
Morning-line favoritism lies with the Christophe Clement-trained Les Reys (Fr) (Penny's Picnic {Ire}), a French invader who impressed in her first North American start when upsetting the Winter Memories Stakes at Belmont's Aqueduct meet over this same one-mile distance Sept. 13. She'll be going for three straight wins (all three at one mile) and the 90 Beyer Speed Figure she earned in New York puts her at the top of the field by a clear margin. Her main rival to come close (bar one of the AE's) is Buttercream Babe (Twirling Candy) who has comfortably been in the high 80s during her best efforts at the mile earlier in the season but was last sixth, beaten three lengths, over the tricky course going 6 1/2 furlongs at Kentucky Downs in the GII Music City Stakes Sept. 7 for trainer Michael Maker. That Music City winner, Simply in Front (Summer Front) also appears here drawn widest of the 12. She goes back up to the mile having cut back off four straight efforts at the distance posting one win in allowance company at Churchill in June and one second two starts back in the GIII Ontario Colleen Stakes in late July. Memorialize (Karakontie {Jpn}) comes in off nearly a year on the sidelines, having last won the Tepin Stakes at Aqueduct Nov. 17 of last year. The Graham Motion runner came fifth behind last year's GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Hard to Justify (Justify) in her last graded stare, the GII Miss Grillo Stakes last October. Drawn against the rail is another French runner, Opera Mundi (Ire) (Kingman {GB}), a juvenile stakes winner at Deauville who was off the board in the G1 French 1000 Guineas and will make her first North American start Friday for trainer Brendan Walsh.
The GII Valley View Stakes runs as race nine on a 10-race card at Keeneland with post time scheduled for 5:16 p.m. EST.
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