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Lady Kate Seeks A Second Groupie Doll Win At Ellis Park

Anderson Stables' Lady Kate, the 2020 RUNHAPPY Group Doll winner, is the only return winner from last year's five dirt stakes on the RUNHAPPY Ellis Park Derby Day card at Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky. Then again, she's the only who could, with the other four stakes limited to either 2-year-olds or 3-year-olds.

Lady Kate also is seeking to become the first two-time winner of the stakes, which dates to 1987. Even Groupie Doll, the two-time Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint and champion female sprinter, only won the stakes now named for her once, that coming in 2011 as a 3-year-old. Groupie Doll also was third in 2013 en route to her second championship.

The 5-year-old Lady Kate, with Adam Beschizza to ride, goes up against familiar faces in last year's Groupie Doll runner-up New Roo and third-place Istan Council.

“She's doing well,” trainer Eddie Kenneally said of Lady Kate, who recently shipped over from his Keeneland barn. “She seems to like it here, and she was successful in the race last year and got it done first time running on this track. She's been here a few days and settled in nicely. She's been doing her breezes at Keeneland. It's a loaded race, quite a few runners in there. But I think it was a good big field here last year as well.”

After the Groupie Doll, Lady Kate finished second to champion Monomoy Girl in Churchill Downs' delayed Grade 1 La Troienne. She tired to 10th after pushing the pace in the Breeders' Cup Distaff, then in her only start this year was fifth in Aqueduct's Grade 3 Distaff Handicap in April.

“She seems to like Ellis and Churchill,” Kenneally said. “So hopefully we can repeat something like we did last year with her. But she's in great shape. She didn't have a prep for the race this year. She hasn't run since the first week of April. So she's coming in fresh with no prep. That's the only concern: She doesn't have a race under her belt coming in against horses that are fit and racing.”

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That Grade 1-placing was huge for Lady Kate, a daughter of champion Bernardini who cost $485,000 as a yearling.

“For a filly with a pedigree like her it enhances her value tremendously to be placed at all in a G1,” Kenneally said. “It stamps her value going forward. So it means a lot for those kinds of fillies. She was a high-dollar yearling and thankfully it's turned out.

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Trainer Oliver, Jockey Bejarano Celebrate Multi-Win Day At Ellis Park Saturday

Trainer Vicki Oliver and jockey Rafael Bejarano proved the stars of Saturday's first day of Kentucky Downs Preview Weekend at the RUNHAPPY Meet at Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky., teaming for three victories, with the rider winning four overall.

Oliver brought two 3-year-old fillies from her Keeneland base. But instead of running both Flippant and Core Values in the $100,000 Kentucky Downs TVG Preview Dueling Grounds Oaks, she opted to put Core Values in against boys in the $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Dueling Grounds Derby. That resulted in a nose victory over favored Royal Prince, with Flippant winning the $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Dueling Grounds Oaks two races later by a half-length over Caldee.

The trainer and jockey also teamed to take the third race, a $52,000 turf allowance sprint, with the 4-year-old filly Never Forget, who is out of the same mare (Frivolous) as Flippant. Both fillies are owned by breeder G. Watts Humphrey, the trainer's dad.

Bejarano's big day started with victory in the second race aboard Casino Star in an optional claiming $40,000 allowance race.

Oliver said it was only the second time in her career that she'd won three races on a card, the last time coming in June 19, 2006, at The Meadowlands' all-grass meet. She said it was her first time winning two stakes.

Oliver said she's hoping to run all three winning fillies in stakes at Kentucky Downs' meet in early September.

“I love Kentucky Downs. Love Ellis Park, and it's fun to be here supporting them,” she said. “I think it's fantastic they have this day. It's great for all of us who stay here and support the Kentucky circuit. It keeps us staying here. And we get a leg up to get into Kentucky Downs for that.”

Meet-leading trainer Brad Cox — who was busy winning Saratoga's Grade 1 Whitney Stakes with Knicks Go (an Ellis Park 2-year-old winner and runner-up in the Ellis Park Derby) — won the first of the stakes quartet as Shared Sense took the $65,000 Tri-State Overnight Stakes under Brian Hernandez Jr. Trainer Brendan Walsh — at Saratoga, where he was second in the Whitney with Maxfield, who trained all summer as a 2-year-old at Ellis Park — captured the $100,000 Kentucky Downs TVG Preview Turf Sprint with favored Born Great, ridden by Adam Beschizza.

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Walsh’s Born Great Best In Kentucky Downs TVG Preview Turf Sprint At Ellis

Born Great probably needed to win the $100,000 Kentucky Downs TVG Preview Turf Sprint at Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky., to get a shot at the big money offered at his favorite track, Kentucky Downs. The 5-year-old gelding did his part, finishing fastest under Adam Beschizza to defeat Siem Riep by 1 1/4 lengths while covering 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:00.48. That was just off Totally Boss' 2019 track record of 1:00.26 in the same race.

Trained by Brendan Walsh, Born Great won a maiden and allowance race in a one-week span at Kentucky Downs last year. So obviously the plan was to win this race to get an automatic fees-paid spot in the $1 million FanDuel Turf Sprint on Sept. 11 at that track. The winner of the Grade 3 FanDuel Turf Sprint, which will be televised live by NBC, in turn gets a fees-paid spot in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar.

Because graded-stakes winners and then stakes winners are preferred if the Kentucky Downs stakes gets more than 12 entries, getting the automatic qualifier was critical.

“Obviously it's a big deal for him to win,” said assistant trainer Paul Madden, who runs Walsh's Ellis Park division. “But most importantly for him to qualify for Kentucky Downs, which is huge, a place where he was 2 for 2 last year.

“But he's a really neat horse. He always gives 100 percent. He had a little time off after the Fair Grounds and was second at Churchill not that long ago, but just lacked a little sharpness. Brendan was here on Wednesday and was thrilled with him and knew he was sitting on a big race. So we weren't surprised how he ran to be honest.”

Beschizza had Born Great settled into eighth in the field of 10 older sprinters as High Crime set a torrid pace. Though in mid-stretch it looked like almost any horse could win, Born Great surged through the stretch, blowing to the lead in the final sixteenth-mile. He paid $7.20 as the favorite.

“Most of the horses I've been riding early on in the day have all been speed close to the lead types of horses,” Beschizza said. “As fast as the turf is playing, it's not really paying off. Horses are coming from behind and reaping the reward from the fast pace up front. Kentucky Downs really suits him. Ideally, I think his best trip is probably three-quarters (of a mile). At 5 1/2, if he's got a decent pace in front of him, he usually can reel them back in within reason. He did it pretty comfortably in the end.”

Born Great, a son of the deceased Scat Daddy, now is 4-2-1 in nine starts, earning $2442,025 for owners Marc Detampel and Fergus Galvin.

“It's perfect that his beloved Kentucky Downs is just around the corner, and obviously he's going to get the course and distance there,” Beschizza said of the six-furlong $1 million FanDuel Turf Sprint. “Thanks to Marc Detampel, Brendan and Paul here for having him in good shape coming into this race, and I don't think he's done yet this summer.”

The Terry Brennan-trained Siem Riep, making only his second start since he was second by a neck in the 2019 Preview Turf Mile, rallied from last. It marked his third time to be second in a Preview race, also finishing second in 2018 in the Preview Turf Mile. It was another 1 1/4 lengths back to Gray Attempt, making his turf debut.

“We got a little bit shuffled back on the turn, but when you don't have that sprinter speed early, it's kind of tough to hold your position,” said Graham, who rode Siem Riep in his three Ellis Park runners-up finishes. “But he made a good account for him today. He's a cool little horse, and he tries. I ran after Born Great. He got to save ground around the turn. He took my spot going into the turn, so I had to go around. But I can't say anything. My horse was looking for a little bit more ground anyway. But he finished the right way.”

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Takntothecleaners Attempts To Stay Undefeated In Kentucky Downs Preview Stakes At Ellis

Michael Hernon's Takntothecleaners — winner of an off-the-turf maiden race by 9 1/4 lengths and a grass allowance race by 1 1/4 at Indiana Grand — tries to go to 3 for 3 as she steps into stakes company in Saturday's $100,000 Kentucky Downs TVG Preview Dueling Grounds Oaks at 1 1/16 miles at Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky. She has never trailed a horse, but also faced only four horses in her first race. Rodney Prescott, aboard for her first two races, has a family conflict and will be replaced for this race by Adam Beschizza, said trainer Ethan West.

“She broke like a shot. Went out there with her ears pricked the whole time,” said the Indiana Grand-based West. “The jockey just kept her at her task. The second start, she's got tremendous gate speed. She shot out there, and they pressed her around there, with her ears pricked again. When Rodney asked her, she went.

“We wanted to give her a shot. She hasn't given us a reason not to try her in stakes company.”

As far as being in front, he said, “I think her ability put her there. We've had her since Turfway (over the winter), and we've always worked her in company, being a younger horse. She's always rated just fine. She's actually more relaxed by another horse than by herself. I think she just out-footed her early. I don't consider her a one-dimensional horse by any means.”

Takntothecleaners, a $15,000 2-year-old auction purchase, is 10-1 in the morning line. She breaks from post 7 among the nine 3-year-old fillies entered in the 1 1/16-mile grass race.

“I think she ranks somewhere in the middle,” West said of the competition. “Obviously she's not a standout. But I don't think she's going to be the longest shot.”

And off only two starts, there should be a lot of upside to Takntothecleaners.

“I've liked her since she came in,” West said. “She was very, very high strung when we got her. She still is a very high-energy filly. But her maturity is starting to come through. It's going to be tough. It's the first time she shipped, so we'll see how she handled that.

“We really didn't know what kind of filly she was when we got her. She just kept stepping up her game. She's gone a lot farther a lot faster than I thought.”

The Preview Oaks winner gets a fees-paid spot in the $500,000 Exacta Systems Dueling Grounds Oaks at 1 5/16 miles on Kentucky Downs' Sept. 5 opening card.

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