Don't Leave Me Set for Selene Stakes

Don't Leave Me will try for a second straight graded stakes win when she faces an expected eight other 3-year-old fillies in the $150,000 Selene Stakes (Can-III) May 24 at Woodbine.

Pin Oak Stable homebred Don't Leave Me opened the season by notching the first graded-stakes win of her career when the daughter of Lemon Drop Kid   rallied from ninth to take the Bourbonette Oaks (gr. III) March 21 at Turfway Park. Sunday's Selene will be contested on the main track at Woodbine, which like Turfway features a Polytrack surface.

Don't Leave Me has steadily tried longer distances in her races since winning her maiden special weight debut last August at Woodbine in a race that was moved from the turf to the Polytrack. She then won a seven-furlong allowance race on the Woodbine turf and finished off the board in the one-mile Natalma Stakes (Can-II) on the Woodbine turf to close out last season.

Trained by Malcolm Pierce, Don't Leave Me enters the 1 1/16-mile race off her Bourbonette win at one mile.

The field includes Bill and Vicki Poston's Ol' Fashion Gal, who won last year's Jimmy Durante Stakes (gr. III) on the turf at Del Mar. The daughter of Sky Mesa   will be making her third start of the season after opening the year with off-the-board finishes in graded stakes on the turf at Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita Park.

Other stakes winners in the Selene include Paul Mouttet's Green Doctor and Tucci Stables' Starless Night.