La Cara Returns With Class Edge in Suncoast

Last seen finishing a well-beaten fifth to subsequent champion 2-year-old filly Immersive  in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) at Del Mar Nov. 1, grade 3 winner La Cara  is back in action for her 3-year-old debut Feb. 8 as she faces seven rivals in the $150,000 Suncoast Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.

The race, run at one mile and 40 yards, is on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks, offering the top five finishers qualifying points on a 20-10-6-4-2 scale. La Cara has already shown an affinity for Churchill Downs, having won the opening race on the Kentucky Oaks (G1) trail, the Pocahontas Stakes (G3), last September.

Tracy Farmer's homebred daughter of Street Sense   certainly has the class edge in this field. It may have taken her four tries to break her maiden, but each of her three defeats came to eventual stakes winners. Additionally, her maiden victory at Saratoga Race Course was against twice grade 1-placed Quickick .

"We're hoping she is a Kentucky Oaks filly, and (the Suncoast) is the first step in proving that," said La Cara's trainer Mark Casse. "She has been sharp in her workouts and I think she will be up pretty close early coming off the layoff."

Casse said the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies was a disappointment, but he is ready to throw it out given the manner in which La Cara has been training at Palm Meadows Training Center.

"I just want a good, positive race, and I think she will give us one," Casse said.

However, La Cara is not the field's lone stakes winner, nor the lone Oaks trail victor. Grantley Acres' Her Laugh  took the field gate to wire in the Untapable Stakes at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots Dec. 21, earning 10 points on the Oaks trail for trainer Whit Beckman while keeping a perfect record intact through two starts.

"We know we have a good filly, and we're excited to see how she comes back as a 3-year-old," said Beckman, who also trains the promising sophomore filly Simply Joking  for Acres and partners.

Her Laugh "has always been a straightforward, professional and talented filly, and she has been acting like she's improving in her workouts. She's growing and putting things all together."

Mellon Patch's Dancing Magic  conquered stakes company locally in her 3-year-old debut, taking the seven-furlong Gasparilla Stakes Jan. 11 for trainer Michael Campbell. Saturday will be her first two-turn test.

"With the level of training I have in her, I'm very confident of her getting the two turns," Campbell said. "It's a tough field, but as a points race for the Kentucky Oaks, it should be that way. You have to perform well if you want to go on, so I welcome the competition.

"I was impressed by the (sustained) turn of foot she showed (in the Gasparilla). She got distracted when the rider on the horse inside of her came off at the break, and she had to make up a lot of ground on a track that favored speed. She looks and feels like a horse that will get better as her races get longer."