LEXINGTON, Ky. – Sometimes it’s difficult to figure out how a race will set up, let alone how it will end up. Picking a winner in the $125,000 Dowager Stakes on Sunday at Keeneland might be a bit tricky, too, but there seems to be little question as to how the 1 1/2-mile turf race will unfold.
Speak Easy Gal, a speedy filly with just one start since early June, figures to sail off to the lead, especially as fresh as she is. Surely to follow will be Casablanca Smile, the former Chilean superstar now trained by Shug McGaughey, and Emerald Beech. Then the three remaining fillies and mares in the compact field, all confirmed closers, will bring up the tail.
What happens after that, of course, is what the people will have come to Keeneland to see.
“I’ve been looking around for a spot, and this seemed like a good one,” said Marty Wolfson, trainer of Speak Easy Gal. “She’s been a wonderful filly for us. I think she’ll be in front, and usually anybody who tries to run with her gets knocked out. She’s a very long-winded filly, so I think we might be OK in there.”
Speak Easy Gal, with Elvis Trujillo to ride, will break from the outside post in the Dowager, which starts on the backstretch and winds through three turns. A Farnsworth Stables filly, she has made terrific progress since she began her career by running in claiming events.
Of the late runners, Restless Soul might have the best kick. A British-bred 6-year-old, she was shipped here this week to trainer Andrew McKeever by her co-owner and longtime trainer, Ben Cecil. McKeever said the mare is scheduled to be sold at auction next month at Keeneland, “although they might try to run her one more time if she runs big Sunday.”
The 19th Dowager, sponsored by the Rood and Riddle equine clinic, goes as the eighth of nine races. Two allowances (races 3 and 7) also are carded for Sunday, when first post is 1:15 p.m. Eastern.
After Sunday, just four days remain at the 17-day fall meet, with the Grade 2 Fayette being the lone remaining stakes. The Fayette is set for the closing-day program next Saturday, Oct. 30.
