The $200,000 Roxelana Stakes, the opening-day feature at Churchill Downs, drew eight older fillies and mares. No more than seven will run, and the subtraction is a key one.
Trainer Paul McGee on Wednesday reported that Lotsandlotsofcandy would be scratched from the Roxelana, a six-furlong dirt race. Listed at 7-2 on the morning line, Lotsandlotsofcandy might well have gone favored. That’s speculation, but the effect her absence has on race shape is not. Lotsandlotsofcandy possesses loads of early speed, and her non-participation alters the shape of the Roxelana.
Asternia, drawn outside, and Jersey Pearl, who breaks from post 2, now stand as the primary pace players. But will they go fast enough to suit Churchill lover Zeitlos, set to step forward in her second start this year?
Zeitlos has gone 4-1-1 from seven starts at Churchill while banking $509,642. She finished a tepid fourth ending her 5-year-old season in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, and a better fourth, though beaten more than five lengths, beginning her 6-year-old campaign March 27 at Oaklawn Park in the Matron Stakes.
“She was a little sharp last time, a little closer to the pace than she needs to be,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. “She’s a closing sprinter – and she needed the race.”
Zeitlos has come back with two Churchill workouts. Asmussen expects improvement.
“She’s doing really well and I expect her to run well,” he said.
Haulin Ice won the Matron, and Florida shipper Vincey Girl defeated Haulin Ice by almost four lengths in August. That, however, marked the pinnacle of Vincey Girl’s career, and closing into a furious pace going seven furlongs put more shine on that showing than it probably deserves.
New York shipper Lucille Ball returned Jan. 2 from a 14-month layoff to make her second career start and won a first-level Aqueduct allowance by more than 10 lengths, earning a 102 Beyer Speed Figure that would swamp her Roxelana foes. The number looks like a radical outlier after two sound stakes defeats.
Mink’s Palace is a poor person’s Zeitlos, a closing sprinter with a strong Churchill record that includes a victory in the 2025 Roxelana. Mink’s Palace won last year’s renewal racing for the first time since a poor Oaklawn run Dec. 22, and trainer Eddie Kenneally has her on the same pattern.
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Mink’s Palace’s most recent race was a win in the Holiday Inaugural on Dec. 21 at Turfway. Merely repeating last year’s Roxelana might not suffice, not if Zeitlos brings her best race and One Magic Philly runs like she can.
Five-year-old One Magic Philly, based at the time with trainer Phil D’Amato in California won three in a row during late summer and early autumn of 2024 – a maiden race, a first-level allowance, and the Grade 3 Chillingworth. She finished a decent sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, whereupon her development stalled.
One Magic Philly’s 2025 campaign toggled between miles and sprints. It included an equipment change – blinkers off – and was followed by a barn change when owner John Gallegos moved her to trainer Brendan Walsh in Kentucky. One Magic Philly ran into vastly talented Shred the Gnar, finishing a good second last fall at Churchill in the one-turn mile Chilukki, then lost her form over the winter in Florida.
Blinkers have gone back on now, and Walsh races One Magic Philly over a distance as short as six furlongs for only the third time in her career. Both things might work well. Breeze video from a couple of recent Churchill drills shows a blinkered One Magic Philly training with true verve. On April 16, she worked inside the multiple Grade 1-placed 4-year-old colt Gosger, and he, frankly, could not stick with her.
It’s been an up-and-down career for this mare. Maybe the magic is back.
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