Istanford, A Little Bit Sassy Take Aim in Regret

Despite capturing the Arlington Classic (GIII) in her last outing, Sam Alley, Janet Alley, Dawn Thrash and Ike Thrash’s Istanford has been made the 9-2 second-choice to Ramona S. Bass LLC’s A Little Bit Sassy (7-2) in Saturday night’s 1 1/8-mile Regret (GIII) over the Matt Winn Turf Course at Churchill Downs.

In the Edgewood Presented by Forcht Bank, A Little Bit Sassy stalked Istanford in second through the opening three quarters of a mile, was able to command the lead in the stretch and kicked clear of the Michael Stidham-trained Istanford by 1 ¼ lengths at the wire on Kentucky Oaks Day.

While the Michael Matz-conditioned A Little Bit Sassy has been home training at Fair Hill in Maryland since the Edgewood, Istanford was busy defeating male competition gate-to-wire, taking her first graded stakes victory in the 1 1/16-mile Arlington Classic on May 24.

“She came out of the Edgewood really well,” Stidham’s Churchill Downs assistant Chris Davis said of Istanford. “She worked great and it looked like a good spot since she’s stabled up at Arlington. She got to stay there and run out of her stall, so we thought with a $150,000 race, we’ll take a shot. The race didn’t come up super tough and we got a good pace scenario. They sat off of her and she got to dictate her pace and kicked home.”

Of the Regret field of 10, no filly has previously displayed the ability to stalk the pace quite like A Little Bit Sassy did in the Edgewood.

“She’s doing fine, she came out of the Edgewood great and we’ll just see how she is going that extra sixteenth of a mile,” Matz said. “I hope she’ll probably just stay right off the pace again and make a run at it.

“It could be a little tougher this time around, you just never know. I don’t think we should be too far behind her (Istanford). But our horse has been doing well, so we’ll see.”

Subsequently, few Regret contenders have shown a desire to take the early lead as Istanford has in her last four outings, which could make for a similar early setup between her and A Little Bit Sassy in the Regret as seen in the Edgewood.

“It’d be nice if she could go out there and set a nice pace for herself,” Davis said. “Going a mile and an eighth might be a little tougher, but she’s doing great. Obviously she’s so much better on the grass and so hopefully she can continue to improve.”

Istanford will break from post position seven with jockey James Graham and A Little Bit Sassy will be ridden by Luis Saez from post four in Saturday night’s Regret, the ninth of 11 races with an approximate post time of 10:11 p.m. EDT.