Alpine Princess Takes on Turfway Locals in Bourbonette

Full of Run Racing II and Madaket Stables' Alpine Princess  ships into Turfway Park with the hopes of solidifying herself as a legit contender for the Kentucky Oaks (G1) in the March 23 $300,000 Bourbonette Oaks.

Trained by Brad Cox, Alpine Princess currently sports 20 points on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks leaderboard, leaving her 21st in the rankings. The 1 1/16-mile Bourbonette offers Oaks points on a 50-25-15-10-5 scale to the first five finishers.

Alpine Princess must overcome two obstacles in the 1 1/16-mile Bourbonette: she needs to rebound from a lackluster effort in her most recent outing, the Feb. 17 Rachel Alexandra Stakes (G2) at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, where she faded to fourth over a sloppy track after prompting the early pace, and she needs to take to Turfway's synthetic track, a surface she's never tried in six trips to the starting gate.

Although Alpine Princess has never run over the synthetic, her sire Classic Empire , who never contested the synthetic himself, boasts a 16% strike rate with his progeny over the synthetic. 

Jockey Luis Saez flies in from South Florida to pilot Alpine Princess, and later the Todd Pletcher-trained Noted  in the Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3).

Formidable Local Opponents

A front-running winner of Fair Ground's Untapable Stakes in December, the lead may not come easily for Alpine Princess with Maxisuperfly  in the field.

Maxisuperfly registered a career-best performance last time out when she captured the Cincinnati Trophy Stakes, Turfway's local prep for the Bourbonette, in gate-to-wire fashion. The win was the Optimizer  filly's second over the Florence, Ky., oval following her maiden win Jan. 18. Her trainer, Eric Foster, has been enjoying a stellar Turfway meet, with his runners winning at 19% as of March 20.

Like Alpine Princess, Maxisuperfly, owned in partnership by Maxis Stable, Foster Family Racing, and Chris Vitale, has 20 points in the Road to the Kentucky Oaks standings, which she attained in the Cincinnati Trophy.

Other key local contenders are Trial , a late-running victor of an allowance optional claimer Feb. 21 for trainer Thomas Drury Jr., and impressive debut scorer Winnable  from the barn of Kenny McPeek.

Other Invaders

Alpine Princess isn't the only formidable ship-in on Saturday.

Dixiana Farms' Band of Gold  enters the Bourbonette with 20 points on the Oaks trail, having rolled to a 2 3/4-length win in the slop in Oaklawn Park's Martha Washington Stakes Feb. 3. The daughter of Preservationist  , trained by McPeek, finished sixth in her next trip to the post when wheeling back for the Feb. 24 Honeybee Stakes (G3).

Pink Polkadots  is another interesting contender vanning up from the south for a try over the synthetic. The Joe Sharp trainee, a half sister to grade 3 winner Safeen , is 2-for-2 following decisive victories on the turf at Fair Grounds.