Recent Grade 2 winners Stonetastic and R Free Roll top a solid field of fillies and mares entered in the Oct. 4 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes that is part of the opening weekend stakes extravaganza at Keeneland.
Carded at six furlongs on Keeneland's new dirt main track, the TCA is a "Win and You're In" Challenge race for the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint. Groupie Doll, the retired superstar, used the TCA as a springboard to F&M Sprint success; she won Keeneland's prep race in 2012 and finished third last year.
TCA STAKES DRAW
Stonetastic, a 3-year-old daughter of Mizzen Mast racing for James L. Stone's Stoneway Farm, posted a powerful 8-1/2-length victory in the $300,000 Prioress Stakes at Saratoga Race Course Aug. 30. Ridden by Paco Lopez for trainer Kelly Breen, Stonetastic went right to the front and never looked back for her first stakes victory and third win from seven career starts in a final time of 1:08.88 for six furlongs.
A 4-year-old Florida-bred daughter of Rockport Harbor trained by Ralph and Kirk Ziadie, R Free Roll races for breeder Richard Averill's Averill Racing and Silver Oak Stable. A four-time stakes winner in Florida, R Free Roll was shipped to trainer Danny Gargan at Saratoga to contest the July 28 TVG Honorable Miss Stakes, which she won by 1-1/2 lengths in front-running style on a sloppy, sealed main track.
R Free Roll, who was also ridden by Lopez in the Honorable Miss, comes into the TCA on a three-stakes win streak and is seeking her eighth victory in her 18 career start. With Lopez returning aboard Stonetastic, R Free Role will have the services of Hall of Famer Mike Smith.
Shipping in from Canada for the TCA are four-time Woodbine stakes winner Leigh Court, most recently the 2-1/2-length winner of the Seaway Stakes for owner-breeder Eugene Melnyk and trainer Josie Carroll, and John C. Oxley's Northern Passion.
Another TCA contender who also does her best running on the front end, Leigh Court was making her first start of 2014 in the Seaway after concluding her 2013 campaign when fourth, only 1-1/2 lengths behind winner Kitten's Dumplings, in the Queen Elizabeth II Invitational Cup at Keeneland last October.
The TCA will be Leigh Court's third start at six furlongs, the distance at which the Grand Slam filly broke her maiden in her career debut and then finished second in allowance company in her second start.
A closer trained by Mark Casse, Northern Passion has won five of 18 starts and earned $647,988. The 5-year-old First Samurai mare is also a four-time stakes winner at Woodbine, including the Natalma Stakes in 2011.