Ladies Marathon Among Three Stakes Sept. 12 at KY Downs

Fillies and mares have the stakes stage to themselves Sept. 12 for the final card of the six-day Kentucky Downs meet.

The Sunday headliner is the $550,000 Kentucky Downs Ladies Marathon Stakes for older fillies and mares at 1 5/16 miles, which is preceded by a pair of $500,000 sprint stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs, the Ainsworth Stakes for 2-year-old fillies and the Nelson's Green Brier Whiskey Music City Stakes for 3-year-old fillies.

In the Ladies Marathon, the final stakes of the season, Godolphin homebred Micheline  will try to repeat her success in last year's Exacta Systems Dueling Grounds Oaks when she defeated eventual grade 1 winner Harvey's Lil Goil . Micheline, a daughter of Bernardini  , has a single win since her Oaks victory—in the Hillsborough Stakes (G2T) at Tampa Bay Downs March 6—but all her starts have been in graded stakes company. The Marathon will be her first start since she was a well-beaten seventh in the Robert G. Dick Memorial Stakes (G3T) at Delaware Park July 10.

Joel Rosario, who rode her to victory in the Dueling Grounds Oaks and in the midst of a record-setting Kentucky Downs season this year, returns to the saddle for the Mike Stidham trainee. Micheline is a daughter of Panty Raid , who won two grade 1s while earning more than $1 million.

Catherine Wills' homebred Luck Money , trained by Arnaud Delacour, was third in last year's Dueling Ground Oaks at 29-1 and since has a stakes win and was second in the Dick Memorial. In her last race, she was fourth after weakening late in the 1 1/2-mile Glens Falls Stakes (G2T) at Saratoga Race Course Aug. 7. That race's winner, War Like Goddess, captured the Flower Bowl Bowl Stakes (G1T) at Saratoga.

Cannon Thoroughbreds' Go Big Blue Nation  ships in from California for trainer Michael McCarthy, who won this year's Preakness Stakes (G1) with Rombauer . Go Big Blue Nation stepped back from stakes company on July 18 to win an allowance optional claimer at 1 3/8 miles at Del Mar.

The Graham Motion-trained Blame Debbie  returns to Kentucky Downs where she finished first in an allowance race at the Ladies Marathon distance last year but was disqualified to third for interference. She was fifth in the Dance Smartly Stakes (G2T) at Woodbine Aug. 22.

The Big Lick Farm homebred Cavalier Cupid  brings a stakes win into the Ainsworth Stakes scoring in the $100,000 Keswick Stakes Aug. 2 at Colonial Downs for trainer Sarah Nagle. 

The morning-line favorites, however, are Lady Danae , a first-out winner at Saratoga for trainer Joe Sharp and owners Scott and Evan Dilworth and Randy and Susan Andrews, and Arnmore Thoroughbreds' stakes-placed Poppy Flower  for trainer Wesley Ward.

MeB Racing Stables and Vincent Esopi's Mystic Eyes  should also command attention after a first-out score for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher.

Tobys Heart  cuts back in distance for the Music City after two solid performances at a mile. The Jack Milton   filly is a two-time stakes winner in turf sprints for owners Terry Hamilton, Gary Barber, and Brian Lynch, who also trains.

Stakes winners Illegal Smile  and Saranya  are among her 11 rivals in the body of the field.