Prairie Bayou Lures Full Field

The Dec. 18 Prairie Bayou Stakes at Turfway Park says a couple of things about the state of Kentucky racing: Purses aren’t up to par, and $50,000 can still buy you a pretty good field at a time of the year when many stables have headed south for better weather and more money.

The 1 1/8-mile stakes for 3-year-olds and up attracted a field of 12 with two also-eligibles. Two are graded-stakes winners, and five others have completed in graded company during their careers.

Thomas and Jack Conway’s Stately Victor, winner of this year’s Toyota Blue Grass (gr. I) at Keeneland and Ontario Derby at Woodbine, has done his best running on synthetic surfaces. The 3-year-old Ghostzapper   colt will try Turfway’s Polytrack for the first time in the Prairie Bayou; a solid third-place finish in the grade II Fayette Stakes at Keeneland two starts back could make him the favorite.

Bad Cats Racing and Laura Bealmear’s Stream Cat, winner of the 2009 Tokyo City Handicap (gr. III) on the synthetic surface at Santa Anita Park, will make only his second start of 2010 in the Prairie Bayou. The 7-year-old Black Minnaloushe gelding finished seventh of nine in a Churchill Downs allowance test in his Nov. 7 return to racing.