McPeek seeks Dueling Grounds Oaks repeat at Kentucky Downs

Kenny McPeek, a three-time Kentucky Downs leading trainer, will try to win Wednesday’s $300,000 Fifth Third Insurance Dueling Grounds Oaks for the second straight year, this time with Princess Warrior, who is owned by Evan Trommer and his sons Matthew and Andrew. A year ago, the barn won the Oaks with Daddys Lil Darling.

Both fillies were second in Keeneland’s Grade 1 Darley Alcibiades as 2-year-olds. Princess Warrior has a ways to go to take the comparison much farther, with Daddys Lil Darling already a graded stakes-winner who also finished second in the Grade 1 Ashland and Kentucky Oaks before racing at Kentucky Downs, and who would go on to be a Grade 1 winner, taking Santa Anita’s American Oaks, and becoming a $1.3 million-earner.

But could Princess Warrior prove to be Daddys Lil Darling Lite?

Greg Geier, a McPeek assistant trainer at Churchill Downs, thinks so. “Her last two races were really good,” he said. “All her turf races have been good. She looks like she’s just getting better and the extra distance should help.”

Princess Warrior first ran on turf when a rallying fourth in Gulfstream Park’s Grade 3 Herecomesthebride Stakes on March 3, after which she was a well-beaten third back on dirt in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks. She went through a sequence of three poor races but McPeek put her back on turf, added blinkers and took her off anti-bleeder medication.

The result was an allowance win at Ellis Park, followed by a third in Arlington Park’s Grade 3 Pucker Up Stakes, in which she rallied from last behind a slow pace to get beat 2 3/4 lengths for everything. Brian Hernandez Jr., who rode Princess Warrior last fall and once earlier this spring, is back aboard.

“She looks like she’s gotten back on form, putting her on the grass,” Hernandez said. “She ran a big race last time in the Pucker Up. She may be a filly where she’s just getting good, though she actually beat me down here (at Churchill Downs) first time out when I was riding Mia Mischief.” That filly has gone on to be a multiple stakes-winner and Grade 1-placed.