La Pelosa Headlines Natalma

[Wandering Eyes]

Named for the dam of Northern Dancer, Sunday’s GI Natalma S. at Woodbine drew a large and competitive field of juvenile fillies seeking automatic entry into the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf in this “Win and You’re In” event.

Trainer Charles Appleby invades from across the pond with La Pelosa (Ire) (Dandy Man {Ire}), a debut winner at Kempton May 23. While she hasn’t visited the winner’s circle since, the bay has been racing exclusively in stakes since and was last seen finishing second in the G3 Sweet Solera S. Aug. 11 at Newmarket. She also has placings in the G3 Albany S. at Royal Ascot and the British Stallion Studs EBF Star S. at Sandown Park.

Had it not been for a disqualification in the My Dear S. on the local aynthetic July 7, My Gal Betty (Point of Entry) would be sporting a perfect record in three starts. Her two wins have been extremely impressive here at Woodbine, first in a maiden special weight May 20 over the all weather, and then in the Catch a Glimpse S. Aug. 25 over a yielding turf course, which she won by 4 1/4 lengths. Trainer Roger Attfield won this race in 1993 with Alywow (Alysheba) and again in 2013 with Llanarmon (Sky Mesa).

Wesley Ward is never better than when shipping out of town and he brings Stillwater Cove (Quality Road) to the post. While this filly faltered well behind La Pelosa (Ire) in Royal Ascot’s aforementioned Albany, she is unbeaten on this continent after debuting at Keeneland Apr. 8 and then reappearing at Saratoga in the Aug. 15 Bolton Landing S.

Players looking for value could do worse than Eyeinthesky (Sky Mesa), who may be 15-1 and may have gotten trounced by My Gal Betty in the Catch a Glimpse last out, but she has the Mark Casse barn in her corner. Casse has won seven editions of this race since 2006 and is so often a factor at Woodbine.

 

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