Belle Puts Unbeaten Record On Line

Gary and Mary West’s West Coast Belle (Tapit) looks to go three-for-three in her young career when she faces 11 foes in Saturday’s GII Golden Rod S. at Churchill Downs. The gray filly graduated with a strong late run in her 5 1/2-furlong debut at Monmouth Park Sept. 13 and powered home to a 6 3/4-length victory in the Oct. 26 Rags to Riches S. over one mile of the Churchill oval. The late-running West homebred will get an extra sixteenth of a mile to work with in the Golden Rod. Cristina’s Journey is another who already owns a graded stakes win over the Churchill strip. The GSN Racing colorbearer won the Sept. 6 GII Pocahontas S. in her second start. She will be looking to rebound from a troubled 11th-place effort behind Take Charge Brandi (Giant’s Causeway) in the Nov. 1 GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. Lothenbach Stables’s homebred No Fault of Mine (Blame) will be trying conventional dirt for the first time after an impressive 4 1/2-length debut victory over Arlington’s all-weather surface Sept. 28. Five D Thoroughbreds’s Kathballu (Bluegrass Cat), a full-sister to 2010 Golden Rod winner Kathmanblu, broke her maiden over track and trip last time out Nov. 7.