Women Layer and Woman Of Passion will look to complete sweeps of their respective Kentucky Sire Stakes series for four-year-olds on Tuesday, June 24 at Oak Grove Racing & Gaming, where they will head to post as odds-on morning line choices in their respective $150,000 USD championship events.
Women Layer, a perfect six-for-six this season, is the 2-5 early choice in the male pace, which attracted a field of six and is carded as race two on Tuesday's 15-race program. The Sweet Lou-Loreenas Ruffian gelding won the spring series championship in 1:49.2 and has since reeled off three more open-length wins in preliminary action. Todd McCarthy will once again handle the driving duties of the career earner of $764,051 who will leave from post two for trainer Virgil Morgan Jr. Among the five looking to upend Women Layer are Lou Hill (Dexter Dunn, post three), who finished second to Women Layer both in the spring series championship and the most recent preliminary leg, and Better Is Nice (Andy McCarthy, post six), who was second to Women Layer in the first two preliminary rounds of the current series.
Woman Of Passion (pictured above) also seeks a series sweep, but will have to overcome the outermost post eight in the mare trot, carded as Tuesday's eighth race. The daughter of Walner-Womans Will was narrowly defeated by Spy Coast in her first start of the season, but has since won five races in a row, including a 5-1/4-length decision in the spring series final and matching 1:52.4 miles in her two most recent preliminaries. Todd McCarthy will drive the Carter Pinske trainee, who has been installed as the 4-5 morning line favourite and who has banked $$670,449 in her career to date.
Tuesday's card also features the $150,000 USD Kentucky Sire Stakes finals for pacing mares and male trotters. Bath Bomb (Andy McCarthy, post five) will start as the 4-5 morning line favourite in the final for pacing mares, carded as race three, while seeking back-to-back wins in series finals -- she won the final back on May 11 at Oak Grove with a 1:49.4 effort. Per Engblom trains the Lather Up-Sangaal mare for owner Morrison Racing Stables.
In the final for male trotters, scheduled as race six, Ways N Means (Andy McCarthy, post one) will also look to snag back-to-back wins in series finals, himself a winner in the May 11 final with a 1:53.4 effort. Paula Wellwood trains the slight morning-line choice at 5-2 for owners Dreamville Stable and Harbor Racing Stable.
Oak Grove features stakes-heavy cards on both Monday, June 23 and Tuesday, June 24, as the first round of the Kentucky Sire Stakes for two and three-year-olds also commences with more than $1 million USD in purses on offer across the two days. First post both days has been shifted forward to 9 a.m. (CDT) in anticipation of extreme heat blanketing southern Kentucky. A third program for the week has been carded on Wednesday, June 25 to accommodate overnight horses with post time for that day's first race is 1:25 p.m. (CDT).
(Oak Grove)