Valadorna ready to capture elusive first stakes triumph

For all the attention she has drawn in a seven-race career, Valadorna still is not a stakes winner. That could change Tuesday when the Stonestreet Stables homebred comes favored in a field of 11 3-year-old fillies in the $50,000 Tiffany Lass at Fair Grounds in New Orleans.

Valadorna has been a highprofile horse since she ran second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies in November 2016 at Santa Anita. Only one of her four starts in 2017 has been in stakes company as trainer Mark Casse has proceeded methodically in returning her to top-class company.

In two starts since being sidelined in the lead-up to the Kentucky Oaks, Valadorna has finished second to her Stonestreet stablemate Mannerly in a Churchill Downs allowance before easily winning for the same two-other-than condition on Dec. 8 at Fair Grounds to run her career bankroll to $470,400.

“She’s doing super,” said David Carroll, who is overseeing a 35-horse Casse string at Fair Grounds. “This race is supposed to set us up for the Houston Ladies Classic,” a $400,000 race to be run Jan. 28 at Sam Houston Park.

“Ideally, we would’ve liked to have had another week or so since her last race, but this is the race we need to run in to get her ready for Houston. Hopefully she’ll take another step forward.”

Brian Hernandez Jr. has the call on Valadorna, who will break from post 6 in the Tiffany Lass, which goes at a mile and 70 yards. Her primary opposition includes Mannerly (post 1, Corey Lanerie). They will race uncoupled for wagering purposes, as opposed to when she defeated Valadorna in the Churchill race when they were heavily favored as a same-owner entry. Brendan Walsh trains Mannerly for Stonestreet.

Other Tiffany Lass considerations include Motown Lady (post 5, Gabriel Saez), a multiple graded stakes-placed filly trained by Bret Calhoun; Show Stealer (post 9, Miguel Mena), most recently fourth in the Grade 2 Chilukki at Churchill; and Champagne Problems (post 3, Calvin Borel), stretching out for Ian Wilkes.

The Tiffany Lass, named for the Aaron Jones homebred who won four races at Fair Grounds leading into her victory in the 1986 Kentucky Oaks for Laz Barrera, anchors an 11-race Tuesday card that starts at 1 p.m. Central. The Tiffany Lass goes as race 9 (5:03) and is surrounded by the only two allowances (races 8 and 10) of the afternoon.