Road to Kentucky Oaks

Tracy Farmer's homebred La Cara (f, 3, Street Sense--Cara Caterina, by Bernardini) closed out the Road to the Kentucky Oaks the same way she started it: with a win. Victorious in the first GI Kentucky Oaks points race of the season--the GIII Pocahontas Stakes at Churchill Downs last September--and the last, Monday's rescheduled GI Central Bank Ashland Stakes at Keeneland, La Cara heads to the Oaks with 151.75 points, second on the leaderboard behind Mar. 29 GII Fantasy Stakes winner Quietside (Malibu Moon). The Ashland awarded Oaks points on a...

All the hype about Oaklawn's GII Fantasy Stakes Saturday being a two-horse race was on the nose. 'TDN Rising Star' Quietside (f, 3, Malibu Moon--Benner Island, by Speightstown), so talented but so often a bridesmaid before winning the GIII Honeybee Stakes last out, faced unbeaten Simply Joking (Practical Joke), light on experience but winner of two black-type events at Fair Grounds. It was Quietside, the Shortleaf Stable homebred, who got the measure of Simply Joking Saturday and picked up 100 points on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks. The Fantasy...

Billed as a showdown between the top three finishers of the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, Keeneland's opening day GI Central Bank Ashland S.--worth not just $600,000 in purse money but also GI Kentucky Oaks points on a 100-50-25-15-10 scale--instead featured the blossoming of Whisper Hill Farm's 'TDN Rising Star' Leslie's Rose (f, 3, Into Mischief--Wildwood Rose {Ire}, by Galileo {Ire}), who left no doubt about the top filly on the day with a three-length tour de force. George Krikorian's Breeders' Cup winner and Eclipse champion Just F Y I...