Thomas Galvin's multiple Louisiana-bred stakes winner Norah G will face nine 3-year-old fillies entered for Saturday night's featured 48th running of the $300,000 Dogwood Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs.
Saturday's “Downs After Dark” program will get underway at 6 p.m. (ET) and the Dogwood, set for seven-furlongs on the main track, will go as Race 10 at 10:42 p.m. The 11-race card will also include the $300,000 Bourbon Trail, $300,000 Harrods Creek, and $175,000 Seneca Overnight Stakes.
Norah G, trained by Patricia West, will make her first start outside Louisiana but will ship to Kentucky with a solid résumé that includes victories in the Louisiana Futurity at Fair Grounds and Louisiana Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Louisiana Downs. Norah G last competed Aug. 27 at Louisiana Downs on turf where she showed her versatility and easily defeated nine rivals by two lengths going wire to wire in a one-mile allowance-optional claiming event. Jockey Rey Gutierrez will have the call from post No. 8 as the daughter of Fast Anna makes her graded stakes debut.
The Dogwood field features several accomplished fillies including Pea Patch Stakes runner-up Twice as Sweet; Catherine Sophia Stakes runner-up Yesternight; Audubon Oaks runner-up and third-place finisher Flamand and Santa Fe Gold; Valdale Stakes winner B G Warrior; and allowance winner Alexa Lou.
Here is the complete Dogwood field in order of post positions (with jockey and trainer): Yesternight (James Graham, Lindsay Schultz), Metaphysical (Ricardo Santana Jr., Jeff Hiles), Flamand (Mitchell Murrill, Elias Lopez), B G Warrior (Joe Ramos, Ron Kahles), Lady Radler (Jesus Castanon, Mike Campbell), Santa Fe Gold (Francisco Arrieta, Bret Calhoun), Twice as Sweet (Declan Cannon, Brendan Walsh), Norah G (Rey Gutierrez, PatriciaWest), and Alexa Lou (Julien Leparoux, Dallas Stewart).
Also on the card, Gold Square's multiple stakes-placed 3-year-old Slip Mahoney will try to win his first stakes in the Bourbon Trail, St. Elias Stable, West Point Thoroughbreds, and Robert Masiello's ultra-consistent Mount Up, a recent allowance winner at Saratoga, headlines a field of seven 3-year-olds set for the Harrods Creek Stakes, and Richard Bahde's former $50,000 claimer turned Grade 2 winner Taxed heads a field of seven 3-year-old fillies entered in the Seneca Overnight Stakes.
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