Alms aims for rebound win

As Alms emerged as one of the standout turf fillies of her crop over the winter, she set her sights on the Keeneland spring meet and the Grade 3, $150,000 Appalachian Stakes – a race that has been won by the likes of champions Dayatthespa (2012), Lady Eli (2015), and Catch a Glimpse (2016) in recent years.

Keeneland’s traditional April dates were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, but Alms will get a chance to run in the Appalachian after all. Looking to rebound from her first defeat, the filly is part of a field of six set for Saturday’s Appalachian at a mile on the turf for 3-year-old fillies.

A Godolphin homebred by City Zip, Alms won sprinting on turf in her first two starts, including the Grade 3 Matron Stakes at Belmont. Trainer Michael Stidham stretched her out to a mile to win the Grade 3 Jimmy Durante Stakes in November on turf at Del Mar. In her 2020 debut, she again won around two turns on turf, taking the Shantel Lanerie Memorial in February at Fair Grounds.

With the pandemic disrupting the early-season calendar, Alms returned to the races more than three months later in the $100,000 Tepin Stakes on May 23 at Churchill Downs, and was sent away as the favorite in the one-mile turf race. The filly loomed a threat on the far turn before flattening out to finish fifth, beaten just over 2 1/4 lengths by the winner, Sharing. Alms has breezed three times at the Fair Hill training center since that outing, including two consecutive bullet works. Joel Rosario has the call on Saturday.

Stidham won the Appalachian in 2000 with Impending Bear and in 2001 with Bold Answer. He could move into a tie with Chad Brown (2012, 2015, 2018) for the most Appalachian victories all-time. Brown is not represented in this year’s renewal of the race, but his former longtime assistant Cherie DeVaux is. DeVaux, who took out her license in 2018, will saddle Mariafoot, who makes her U.S. debut. Mariafoot, who won the Prix de la Californie earlier this year in France, has posted six works at Keeneland, and DeVaux targeted a race at home to “take some of the variables out” of a new situation for the import, who will have Luis Saez in the irons.

“She needs to settle,” DeVaux said. “She can get a little keen around the barn and in her training. So she’s going to have to settle and not waste herself in the earlier stages of the race trying to fight the rider.”

Walk In Marrakesh, a minor stakes winner in England as a juvenile, finished second by a nose in the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes at Woodbine last September in her first start in North America. This year her best effort came when she was second, beaten a head, in the Grade 3 Florida Oaks at Tampa in March. Trained by Ignacio Correas, Walk In Marrakesh finished fifth in the Sanibel Island at Gulfstream and seventh in the Tepin in her two starts since the Florida Oaks.

Enola Gay, Evil Lyn, and Passion Factor complete the field. Passion Factor was crossentered in an allowance race on Thursday.

AMANDA HODGES WEIR/HODGES PHOTOGRAPHY Alms won the Shantel Lanerie at Fair Grounds (above), then ran fifth in the Tepin at Churchill.