Ohio-bred 2-year-olds get their first chance to strut their stuff Friday at Belterra Park. There are four stakes on the program for Ohio-bred or -accredited runners, including the first stakes this year for the juvenile divisions: the $75,000 Jim Morgan Memorial Tah Dah Stakes for fillies and the $75,000 Hoover Stakes, both at 5 1/2 furlongs.
The Tah Dah has drawn a small field of five, but it looks like a competitive group with plenty of speed and features high-profile connections not often seen on this circuit. Kontiki, by consistent Kentucky sire Midshipman, runs in the state of her birth for the first time for trainer Brad Cox and Stonestreet Farm, which purchased her for $170,000 as a Keeneland September yearling. The filly is a half-sister to multiple stakes winner Generous Lover, the reigning Ohio-bred horse of the year who will be seen later on Friday’s card. Several graded stakes winners are in their immediate family.
Kontiki was sixth in her debut at Keeneland in a key race that produced several next-out winners. The winner was Percy’s Bar, who went on to win the Debutante at Churchill Downs. Kontiki had her next outing at Horseshoe Indianapolis and took pressure throughout before drawing off to win by 7 1/4 lengths going five furlongs. She earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 56, the top number – albeit not by much – in this field.
Blue Tail Fly earned a Beyer of 52 for an 11-length debut win going five furlongs at Belterra earlier this month. The daughter of last year’s leading freshman sire, Vekoma, is trained by Doug Cowans.
Miss Elektra and Dynamic Vision were both multi-length debut winners against their fellow Ohio-breds and add even more speed to this field. The maiden Kerkyra, second in both her starts, including to Blue Tail Fly, rounds out the field.
Hoover Stakes
The Hoover has drawn a field of eight. Half are either maidens or first-time starters, and their speed figures do not come close to those of the fillies earlier on the card.
The top figure in the field belongs to Water Into Wine, who has drawn the outside post for the powerful partnership of Ohio trainer and breeder Tim Hamm and Kentucky-based WinStar Farm. The Always Dreaming gelding pressed the pace in second before drawing clear to win his debut by 6 1/2 lengths at Belterra, posting a Beyer of 37 on the sloppy track. That was at the Hoover’s 5 1/2-furlong distance, and no one else in this field has run beyond five furlongs.
Hamm also will saddle maiden winner Ultimate Destinatn, while trainer Robert Gorham has two runners in this race – the maiden winner Mark My Words and the promising maiden Moonlighter. On debut, Moonlighter was second by three-quarters of a length to the front-running Workstation, another member of this field. Moonlighter, a gelding by Gormley, is the first foal out of Drillit, who Gorham trained to win five stakes. Those included, as a precocious juvenile, the Tah Dah and the Best of Ohio John Galbreath Stakes.
Crown the Buckeye, a debut starter in this race, is from the first crop of Grade 1-winning sprinter Yaupon, who currently ranks atop the freshman sire list and the overall North American 2-year-old sire list by earnings. His six individual winners include stakes winner Sassy C W.
Vivacious, Horizon stakes
Friday’s card also includes a pair of stakes on turf, a relatively rare opportunity in Ohio, as Belterra is the only one of the state’s three Thoroughbred tracks with a turf course.
The $75,000 Vivacious Stakes for Ohio-bred fillies and mares has drawn no less a headliner than Generous Lover. She is the defending winner of this race and can be forgiven for her last outing, when she was seventh in the open Anchorage Stakes at Churchill Downs behind a number of runners with proven graded stakes quality.
Factisimflashy was a stakes winner on the Belterra course last year, and Carmel Rose is coming off a win in her turf debut. Multiple stakes winner Here’s the Spider has not yet run on turf, but, like Generous Lover, she can be forgiven for some efforts against open company. Three of her four tries on the lawn have come outside of Ohio, and in her only start on grass in her home state, she was beaten just a neck in the Tomboy Stakes last August at Belterra.
There are only two prior stakes winners on turf in the $75,000 Horizon Stakes for Ohio-accredited 3-year-olds. Just Like Rambo is coming off a win in the Best of Ohio Green Carpet, while the filly Parlay is coming off a win against her own gender in the Cincinnatian.
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