First turf foray in Cincinnatian

Out for Fun and Bossy Lady were rivals as juveniles and are the only stakes winners in the field for Friday’s $75,000 Cincinnatian Stakes on the grass for Ohio-accredited 3-year-old fillies at Belterra Park. However, no filly in this field has ever run on turf, and none has run this 1 1/16-mile distance, leaving the field wide open.

Out for Fun, trained by Robert Gorham, won last year’s Emerald Necklace sprinting on dirt at Thistledown with Bossy Lady third. She then finished second to Bossy Lady, beaten just three-quarters of a length, in the Glacial Princess Stakes at Mahoning Valley.

Out for Fun was third in the Joshua Radosevich Memorial at Mahoning to end her 2-yearold campaign. However this year, she has not shown the same early speed she showed as a juvenile and is unplaced in three starts, all dirt sprints.

Bossy Lady, whose dam won on turf, took seven starts to win her maiden for Jeff Radosevich, but then went right to stakes company with good efforts in the Emerald Necklace and Glacial Princess. In her only start this year, she was sixth in an allowance race in April when she caught a strong field, as Ohio-bred champion Candlelight Hours led home stakes winner Christmas.

Runlikejackieo, trained by Rodney Faulkner, was third in the Glacial Princess, and this year was third in the Dr. T.F. Classen Memorial against older horses. While none in this field has yet run 1 1/16 miles, she is allowance-placed at a mile this year, and her sire is the longwinded Birdrun.

In addition to Out for Fun, Gorham also will saddle City Signs, Double Edged, and Goodness Sakes. Double Edged was a maiden winner in the slop at Mahoning Valley; wet-track form can often translate to turf form.

The Cincinnatian shares the card with the $21,500 Queen City Overnight Handicap, in which the successful Ohio-bred mare Grizabella takes on open company for Radosevich while going 1 1/16 miles on turf.

Grizabella, an 8-year-old who has earned more than $500,000 in her 64 career starts, is looking for her first win since taking the Vivacious Handicap in July 2021 on this same Belterra turf course. She has not hit the board in six outings since. Thus far in 2022, she was sixth in the Classen Memorial and 10th in the J. William Petro Memorial Handicap, both dirt sprints at Thistledown.

The field also includes Rogue Too, a stakes winner on the synthetic at Turfway Park, and stakes-placed Gamblin Train and My Bets.