Suffolk Downs: Kimball Stakes draws hot first-timer Doublicious
EAST BOSTON, Mass. – Six statebred 3-year-old fillies will go postward in the $50,000 Louise Kimball Stakes at Suffolk Downs on Saturday, and the six-furlong sprint may be the coming-out party for Doublicious.
The unraced Anthony Ryan trainee has been tearing up the track in the mornings with three successive bullet works while stretching out from four to five furlongs. Doublicious also has the pedigree to suggest success in the Massachusetts-bred ranks: She is a daughter of Double Honor and the Holzmeister mare Miss Meister, making her a half-sister to Same Day Pleasure, who captured three statebred stakes in 2008-2009. Like Same Day Pleasure, Doublicious was bred by Angela and Frank Schifano and is owned by their Rum Runner Thoroughbred Racing Inc.
Doublicious drew the outside post and will be ridden by David Amiss.
“I kind of like that post,” said Ryan. “She’s been really good at the gate, and if there any issues with any other horses there, she won’t have to stand in there. It won’t bother her. I would have liked to have gotten a start for her before this, obviously, but she’s ready to go now. She’s got a good mind, she’s really matured out, and she’s got some lick to her, so I’m looking for a real big effort from her.”
Shelly’s Cider, the only filly in the field who has won, makes her second start off a two-month layoff and has every right to improve with leading rider Tammi Piermarini getting the return call. A Lloyd Lockhart homebred who is trained by Lloyd’s grandson Alan, Shelly’s Cider has one victory from five starts and was sixth last out in a first-level allowance test here at six furlongs.
Completing the field are Delycius Lady and Moon Scamper, both of whom are trained by George Brown but will run uncoupled due to separate ownership, first-time starter Spectacular Silk, and Dana.