Whitney Legacy Hard to Miss in Keeneland's Valley View

Marylou Whitney's Hard Legacy provided Norm Casse with the first stakes win of his training career when she won the June 15 Regret Stakes (G3T) at Churchill Downs, a race that also represented the final victory for the popular owner before her death July 19 at age 93.

Months later, with the Thoroughbred racing community still mourning her loss, Hard Legacy and jockey Julien Leparoux will again carry the iconic Eton blue and brown silks of Whitney when she faces an overflow cast in the Oct. 18 Pin Oak Valley View Stakes (G3T) at Keeneland. Owned by The Estate of Marylou Whitney, she returns to a turf course on which she was a maiden winner in her debut last fall.

"We are very proud and honored to represent Marylou Whitney and everything she represents to horse racing," Casse said.

Whitney, posthumously inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in August, won some of North America's most prestigious stakes, including the 2004 Belmont Stakes (G1) and Travers Stakes (G1) with Birdstone  and the 2003 Kentucky Oaks (G1) and Acorn Stakes (G1) with eventual 3-year-old filly champion Bird Town. Both of those runners trained by Nick Zito were bred in Kentucky by Whitney, as was Hard Legacy, a 3-year-old daughter of Hard Spun  out of the Birdstone mare Stone Legacy.

"My understanding is they are going to continue racing in her name and carry on the tradition of running for Marylou Whitney Stables," Casse said.

A victory in the $150,000 Valley View will prove a challenge. Not counting one rival on the also-eligible list, 13 foes are lined up to face her in the 1 1/16-mile turf test for 3-year-old fillies, nine of them stakes winners. Among those are fellow graded winners Maxim Rate, The Mackem Bullet, and Lady Prancealot.

Hard Legacy needs to be error-free to win, something she wasn't in her follow-up race to the Regret when she finished fifth in the Aug. 17 Del Mar Oaks Presented by The Jockey Club (G1T). She broke poorly to trail by 12 lengths after a half-mile before rallying up the inside to finish fifth, beaten three lengths by Cambier Parc, return winner of the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes Presented by Lane's End (G1T).

Video: Del Mar Oaks Presented by The Jockey Club (G1T)

"Obviously, we didn't get to have the run we were expecting, but on the flip side of that, we learned something about her that day," Casse said. "Early on in her career, she was very tough and rank, and you kind of had to let her do her thing. Del Mar showed a different, more versatile Hard Legacy that can obviously sit behind horses now and make a run late."

That versatility could give Leparoux options as he seeks to avoid a wide trip on Hard Legacy, who will break from post 13.

Drawn more favorably in post 2 is Peter Brant's Blowout, one of three Chad Brown-trained stakes winners in the Valley View along with Klaravich Stables' Catch a Bid and Martin Schwartz's Turf War. Blowout won the Sept. 14 Pebbles Stakes and June 22 Wild Applause Stakes, both at Belmont Park; Catch a Bid took the restricted Riskaverse Stakes at Saratoga Race Course Aug. 22; and Turf War rallied to score in the six-furlong Christiecat Stakes at Belmont Sept. 6.

Brown has already won two major grass stakes at the Keeneland fall meet: the First Lady Stakes (G1T) with Uni and the Queen Elizabeth II.

Other leading Valley View contenders include Winter Sunset, second in the Regret and winner of the Sept. 4 Indiana Grand Stakes; Maxim Rate, winner of the Senorita Stakes (G3T) and sixth last out in the Del Mar Oaks; The Mackem Bullet, unraced since winning the April 7 Appalachian Stakes Presented by Japan Racing Association (G2T) at Keeneland; and Honeymoon Stakes (G3T) winner Lady Prancealot, whose late rally was ineffective Sept. 7 when she finished sixth in a paceless Jockey Club Oaks Invitational Stakes at 1 3/8 miles on grass at Belmont.

The Valley View is the ninth race on Friday's 10-race program, with a 5:30 p.m. ET post time.