Auction-Bound Duo of Fionn, Speed Shopper Lead Dowager

The two morning-line favorites for the Oct. 18 Dowager Stakes (G3T) at Keeneland—Fionn  and Speed Shopper —can pad their bankrolls and deliver catalog updates ahead of upcoming auctions with quality performances in the $350,000 race.

George Messina and Michael Lee's Fionn, a grade 1 winner and earner of more than $2 million, is scheduled to be sold Nov. 2 at Fasig-Tipton's The November Sale, while Gary Barber, Bridlewood Farm, and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners' dual grade 3 winner Speed Shopper goes in the sales ring at Keeneland a day later during the first session of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. Both are cataloged as racing and/or broodmare prospects.

Though unplaced in three starts this year, Fionn is favored at 3-1 on the morning line for the Dowager, which drew a full field of 12 fillies and mares to race 1 1/2 miles on turf. Most recently, the 4-year-old Twirling Candy   filly ran a close fifth in the Flower Bowl Stakes (G2T) Oct. 1 at Belmont Park. She is 7-1-1 in 13 career starts, with her most prestigious win coming in the Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes (G1T) last year for trainer Brad Cox.

Speed Shopper, the 7-2 second favorite, also benefits from class relief, having been outrun in two grade 1s and a grade 2 over her last three starts. The Will Walden-trained 5-year-old Quality Road   mare returns to a course and distance over which she took the Bewitch Stakes (G3T) in the spring.