Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Street Band drops in class, favored in Groupie Doll
For decades, the Groupie Doll has been the showcase event at Ellis Park. Leave it to a global pandemic to change that.
Clearly the Runhappy Ellis Park Derby, with its implications toward the Kentucky Derby next month, has become the most important race – at least for this wacky summer – at the western Kentucky track, where the Groupie Doll has been relegated to secondary status for its 39th running Sunday.
The Groupie Doll, known as the Gardenia until being renamed in 2015, directly precedes the Ellis Derby as the ninth of 10 races on Sunday’s card. Even in its different role, the Groupie Doll attracted one of its deepest fields in years, with Street Band the likely favorite in an oversubscribed lineup of fillies and mares.
The Groupie Doll is one of four supporting stakes on a card that starts at 12:50 p.m. Central. All are worth $100,000 (including $25,000 in bonuses from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund), and all will be run on the main track. Here’s a quick rundown of each:
Groupie Doll
As winner of the Grade 1 Cotillion last September and a filly whose last 10 starts have been in graded races, Street Band brings an apparent class edge to a one-mile race that starts in the clubhouse chute. But the 4-year-old daughter of Istan hasn’t won in four starts since the Cotillion, and she’s no better than a lukewarm 3-1 favorite on the Ellis morning line.
“She’s running good, but I don’t know if she’s any better at 4 than she was at 3,” conceded her trainer and co-owner, Larry Jones. “But she is doing very well coming into this. We’ve had this race in mind for quite a while, given all the uncertainty with traveling” because of the pandemic. “This is actually a race we always have on our radar anyway because I just love racing at Ellis Park.”
Street Band will have regular rider Sophie Doyle aboard breaking from post 12. In all, 15 are entered, but only as many as 12 can start.
Perhaps the top challenger to Street Band is Lady Apple, who will have Brian Hernandez Jr. up breaking from post 1. Lady Apple defeated Street Band in winning the Grade 3 Houston Ladies Classic earlier this year but finished behind her in subsequent meetings in the Azeri and Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park.
Outside considerations include With Dignity, Lady Kate, Dos Vinos, and Divine Queen.
Runhappy Audubon Oaks
This seven-furlong race offers qualifying points (10-4-2-1) toward the Kentucky Oaks, but it’s more likely to serve as a prep toward the seven-furlong Eight Belles on the same Sept. 4 card at Churchill Downs.
A Maryland invader, Hello Beautiful, is among the core of favorites in a wide-open field of 11 3-year-old fillies, but only after trainer Brittany Russell decided not to try the likes of Gamine and others in the Grade 1 Test at Saratoga. Julien Leparoux will be aboard Hello Beautiful, a four-time winner, from post 2.
Other major players include Sconsin, a last-out runner-up behind Four Graces in the Beaumont at Keeneland; Casual, a Steve Asmussen-trained filly who faltered behind Gamine in the Acorn after winning her first two starts; Mundaye Call, a sharp comeback winner last month at Keeneland for Brad Cox; and Ocean Breeze, turning back in distance as the beaten favorite in the Iowa Oaks.
Runhappy Debutante
All 12 of the 2-year-old fillies in this seven-furlong race exit the maiden ranks, with none of them ever having contested so much as an allowance race, let alone a stakes. Remarkably, 11 are last-out winners (only longshot Mania remains a maiden), so handicappers will be faced with some difficult mix-andmatching as they sift through the field.
Hipnotizada (67), in from Delaware Park, and Crazy Beautiful (66), a debut winner going a mile on the Ellis turf, have earned the highest Beyer Speed Figures, but that might just be splitting hairs, given that six more fillies have earned a 60 or better. This just might come down to the best trip, with Lacey Boss and Puye Timing both eligible to benefit from clean runs from outside posts.
The Debutante leads off a late pick five (races 6-10) that ends with the Ellis Park Derby. The sequence is comprised of stakes except for race 7, a competitive turf allowance with a big field.
Runhappy Juvenile
The shortest-priced favorite in the Sunday stakes, this side of Art Collector in the Ellis Derby, figures to be Cowan, who will break from post 1 in a field of seven 2-year-olds in this sevenfurlong race. The Kantharos colt was a poorly kept secret as an odds-on winner of his May 22 debut at Churchill for Asmussen.
Medicine Trail, from the meet-leading barn of trainer Dane Kobiskie, and Waist Deep, another Delaware invader, figure as the top upset threats.