Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Lady Jacqueline no easy spot for Maracuja to restart season
Grade 1 winner Maracuja and graded stakes winners Army Wife and Crazy Beautiful come to town to take on the streaking Ohio-bred champion Candlelight Hours in the $250,000 Lady Jacqueline Stakes for fillies and mares, the highlight of the Ohio Derby undercard Saturday at Thistledown.
Candlelight Hours has opted for this open spot against fillies and mares going 1 1/8 miles, instead of taking on Ohio-bred males in the $75,000 Daniel Stearns Cleveland Gold Cup for 3-year-olds going the same distance. The card also includes the $75,000 George Lewis Memorial Stakes for Ohio-accredited older runners.
Maracuja, who will have Kendrick Carmouche in the irons, comes to Ohio having tangled with some of the division’s best. She came to prominence with a head victory over eventual Eclipse Award divisional champion Malathaat in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks last July at Saratoga. She was seventh in the Grade 1 Alabama and fourth in the Grade 1 Cotillion to end the season.
Maracuja opened 2022 with an allowance-level victory at Oaklawn Park. Just three weeks later, she was fourth in a salty field in the track’s Grade 1 Apple Blossom, finishing behind champion Letruska, multiple Grade 1 winner Clairiere, and champion Ce Ce.
“She was real flat that day, and it was a pretty tough race,” trainer Rob Atras said. “Those fillies all showed up. She ran kind of unusually flat that day, so we gave her a little time after that to get straightened out and then brought her back to Belmont. She seems like with every work she’s gotten better and stronger. She’s coming around and is back to her old self again.”
Atras said the timing of the Lady Jacqueline was good to help round her back into form after the Apple Blossom.
Also looking to get back on track after a minor setback is multiple graded stakes winner Crazy Beautiful. Approaching millionaire status, Crazy Beautiful was entered in the Shawnee Stakes on June 4 at Churchill, but scratched after a mild colic episode. She has breezed twice since, both bullet five-furlong moves at Churchill.
Crazy Beautiful won the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks, Grade 2 Summertime Oaks at Santa Anita, and Grade 3 Delaware Oaks last year, as well as the Seneca overnight stakes. So far this year, she has won the Latonia Stakes at Turfway Park and was sixth in the Grade 3 Doubledogdare at Keeneland, won by Malathaat. Brian Hernandez Jr. has the call for trainer Kenny McPeek.
Army Wife rounds out the trio of graded stakes winners. She won the Grade 2 BlackEyed Susan and Grade 3 Iowa Oaks last year for Mike Maker. She was third in the Alabama behind Malathaat and Clairiere, and third in the Cotillion to Clairiere and Obligatory. Most recently, she was third in the Shawnee under Tyler Gaffalione, who has the return call Saturday.
Candlelight Hours, a 3-yearold trained by James Jackson, comes into her stiffest test having won four consecutive races. She won last fall’s Best of Ohio John W. Galbreath Memorial on a major state showcase program and was subsequently named the statebred champion 2-year-old filly. She has won all three of her starts thus far this year, following up two allowance-level scores with a 4 1/2-length victory in the Best of Ohio Norm Barron Queen City Oaks on June 3 at Belterra Park. Both of her stakes victories were at 1 1/16 miles. She will be asked to go an additional sixteenth for the first time here. At 117, she will get seven pounds from the three graded stakes winners.
Terry Houghton, who has ridden Candlelight Hours to her four straight wins, will be aboard Saturday. They will start from post 4 in the field of 10.
Candlelight Hours would prefer to be forwardly placed and has speed both to her inside, in Take Charge Lorin, and from the far outside, Maliced. Crazy Beautiful and Army Wife will likely be stalking the pace, while Maracuja has shown the ability to stalk or rally.
◗ Several familiar foes, led by multiple stakes winners Tantrum and Country Club Bobby, meet again in the Cleveland Gold Cup.
Tantrum, who is trained by perennial standout Ohio trainer Tim Hamm, won last fall’s Best of Ohio Juvenile over Rumble Strip Ron and Hip Hip Hooray, both of whom return here.
Country Club Bobby scored in his first try around two turns in an off-the-turf edition of the Best of Ohio Green Carpet Stakes on June 3 at Belterra. Rumble Strip Ron was second in that race, with Sammy’s Smile third. Jeff Radosevich trains both Country Club Bobby and Sammy’s Smile.
◗ Authentic Cowtown and Mobil Solution, one-two in last year’s George Lewis Memorial, get a rematch in this year’s edition for trainers James McDonald and Jeff Skerrett, respectively. Authentic Cowtown was most recently second in the Michael F. Rowland Memorial last month at Thistledown, with Mobil Solution third.
They face Big Truck, the 2021 champion Ohio-accredited male, from the barn of Larry Smith.