Valley View Seems Ripe For An Upset

[Wandering Eyes]

An overflow field of 3-year-old fillies is set to face the starter for Friday' GII Bank of America Valley View Stakes on the final couple of days of racing at the Keeneland Fall Meet. For bettors, the 8 1/2-furlong feature, which carries purse money of $400,000 (including KTDF money), seems like a true 'spread' race.

Minnesota-bred Play With Fire (Oscar Performance) looms a logical favorite to give Chad Brown his second Valley View winner in the space of three years (Surge Capacity, 2023). Acquired privately from Fergus Galvin and trainer Brendan Walsh after taking Pimlico's Hilltop Stakes in May, the bay finished second–behind a pair of loose leaders–at Saratoga over the summer, first to Classic Q (Classic Empire) in the Listed Wild Applause Stakes July 3 and then behind May Day Ready (Tapit), who got away with a soft pace to win the Aug. 23 GII Lake Placid Stakes.

Juddmonte homebred Tabiti (GB) (Kingman {GB}) won three of her five starts overseas for Ralph Beckett, including a share of the spoils in the G3 Oak Tree Stakes at Goodwood July 30. She gave a sound account of herself when third to GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint aspirant and 'TDN Rising Star' presented by Hagyard Shisospicy (Mitole) in the 6 1/2-furlong GII Music City Stakes at Kentucky Downs last month and has her first run here for Brad Cox.

Those shopping for rougher chances have plenty of options. The Walsh-conditioned Somethinabouther (Mendelssohn) outran her 16-1 odds to be second in the GIII Ontario Colleen Stakes July 26 and exits a third in a soft-ground renewal of the Listed Old Dominion Oaks at Colonial Sept. 6. Reigning Flowers (Midnight Storm) got home hard to be third in the blanket finish in the Lake Placid and may not have handled the undulations of Kentucky Downs when well-beaten in the GIII Dueling Grounds Oaks last time. And Will Walden, who sent out Rhetorical (Not This Time) to take out the GI Coolmore Turf Mile a few weeks ago, saddles turf debutante Sturgeon Moon (Instagrand). The bay, third to next out Grade I winner Clicquot (Quality Road) in the GIII Indiana Oaks, annexed the Aug. 10 Listed Audubon Oaks in good style and if looking deep in her pedigree, hails from the family of GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf winners Banks Hill (GB) and Intercontinental (GB).

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