Improving Forever After All Ships East for Red Carpet

Dixiana Farms' homebred Forever After All  will make her second trip out West in search of graded glory in the Nov. 24 $100,000 Red Carpet Stakes (G3T) at Del Mar. 

Five-year-old Forever After All has blossomed this year under trainer Brendan Walsh, going from a maiden winner to multiple graded stakes-placed in eight starts. The daughter of Connect   first traveled to California for the Gamely Stakes (G1T) May 27, where she finished a respectable third to Anisette . Although she has been unable to add the title of black-type stakes winner to her résumé, she has since turned in two close runner-up efforts in Churchill Downs' Anchorage Stakes in June, and most recently, a nose loss to Chop Chop  in the Dowager Stakes (G3T) Oct. 20 at Keeneland.

The 1 3/8 miles of the Red Carpet should benefit Forever After All, whose closing kick just missed in the 1 1/2-mile Dowager. Leading rider J.J. Hernandez has the call on the Kentucky shipper.

Another shipper from the East eyeing her first stakes win is the Graham Motion-trained Marksman Queen . In the older female turf division, any horse from the Motion barn is a live contender, and Marksman Queen is no exception, exiting a close runner-up finish in a 1 1/2-mile Keeneland allowance contest Oct. 13.

An intriguing contender is the Augustin Stables' homebred Mrs. Astor . The Johnathan Thomas runner has spent the last month training at Del Mar after running a deceptively good fourth at 52-1 odds in the Dowager.