Crabcakes ships in for Austintown

A pair of 3-year-old fillies whose stakes success came against statebreds in Ohio and Maryland will try to transfer their good form to open company in Saturday’s $75,000 Austintown Filly Sprint at Mahoning Valley Race Course.

The six-furlong Austintown, which closes the eight-race card, is the co-feature with the $75,000 Howard Noonan Stakes for 3-year-old Ohio-breds going six furlongs in race 7.

Crabcakes, a Maryland-bred based at Penn National with trainer Bernie Houghton, is 3 for 4 lifetime, including a 1 1/4-length victory to close out her 2-yearold campaign in the Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship at Laurel. She will be making her first start since finishing a close second as the 6-5 favorite in the seven-furlong Wide Country at Laurel in mid-February.

The locally based Nikki My Darling is 2 for 2 this season, including a two-length score in the Southern Park Stakes on March 25. She will face open company for the first time since an unsuccessful experiment going two turns in the Grade 1 Chandelier at Santa Anita last October.

Astrollinthe park went off heavily favored in all three of her starts, winning her maiden at Fair Grounds and following up with an even easier victory in a first-level optional $50,000 claimer at Laurel on March 26. She is a half-sister to Hard Aces, a winner of $1.1 million during his career.

As troll in the park’ s trainer, Larry Jones, isn’t known for wheeling back 3-year-old fillies quickly. Over the past five years, Jones is just 1 for 6 with last-out winners back sprinting within 21 days.

Gilded Lily seems like a vulnerable favorite at 3-1 on the track’s morning line. All three of her starts have come on Turfway Park’s Polytrack, and two were routes. Trainer Mike Maker is just 2 for 21 with horses switching from synthetic to dirt and from routes to sprints.

White Gold is the most difficult horse to gauge in the 11-horse field. She has been idle since making her second start last July. White Gold, an easy winner of her career debut last May, shows two bullet five-furlong workouts since early March.

◗ Maker also has a suspect favorite in the Howard Noonan in Hansenation (5-2), who changes surfaces and cuts back to a sprint after finishing fourth in the 1 1/16mile Rushaway at Turfway Park on March 25. Hansenation was ninth and fifth in his two previous sprint tries at Mahoning Valley.

Jocker Justice, the second choice at 7-2, will try to make amends after finishing second at 1-5 in his 3-year-old debut March 18.

Nuttin’ Faster, who beat Jocker Justice by 1 3/4 lengths, and Coincidentally are both seeking their third straight wins at the meet.

The nine-horse field also includes Cataphract, who improved dramatically to win his maiden by 14 lengths in his fifth outing, and Fireupthejet, who faces statebreds for the first time after defeating $40,000 maiden claimers at Oaklawn Park in mid-February.