Red Lodge Faces Full Field in Natalma

While Red Lodge is the lone stakes winner entered in the $250,000 Natalma Stakes (Can-IT) Sept. 18 on the Woodbine turf, the expected full field is dotted with juvenile fillies who flashed talent in their maiden wins.

Head of Plains Partners and Hat Creek Racing's Red Lodge secured her initial stakes win Aug. 6 when the daughter of Midshipman   scored a front-running win in the Colleen Stakes sprinting on the Monmouth Park turf. Trained by Wesley Ward, Red Lodge will stretch out to a mile for the first time in Sunday's test.

Red Lodge boasts more travel experience than most 2-year-olds. After breaking her maiden in her second start—and first start on turf—May 27 at Belmont Park, Ward had her shipped to Royal Ascot, where she finished ninth in the Norfolk Stakes (Eng-II). She bounced back well from that trip, winning the 5 1/2-furlong Colleen by 3 1/2 lengths.

Trainer Mark Casse will send out four young fillies as he looks to win the Natalma for the fifth time in six years. One season after winning the Natalma with Catch a Glimpse—who went on to annex the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (gr. IT) and earn Canadian Horse of the Year honors—Casse has entered Gary Barber's Black Canary, Team Valor International's Thora Barber, East West Stables' Enstone, and Live Oak Plantation homebred Victory to Victory.

Black Canary, a War Front   daughter bred in Kentucky by WinStar Farm, won her maiden debut Sept. 2 sprinting on the Saratoga Race Course turf. She was sent off as the 9-5 favorite in her first start and her rider that day, Irad Ortiz Jr., has made the trip north.

Thora Barber, who began her career in England winning one of four starts, enters off a fifth-place finish in an Aug. 27 allowance race on the Woodbine turf. 

Enstone and Victory to Victory are both maidens. Enstone comes off a pair of close runner-up finishes on the Woodbine all-weather surface and Saratoga turf. Victory to Victory, by Exchange Rate, finished just a half-length back in her previous race, a seven-furlong allowance race on the turf at Woodbine. The winner of that race, Tapa Tapa Tapa, by Tapit  , also is entered Sunday where she'll try to extend her win streak to three races.

Trainer Chad Brown ships in Klaravich Stables and William Lawrence's Beat the Benchmark, who rallied from fourth to win her maiden debut Aug. 15 sprinting on the Saratoga turf.

Other first-out winners jumping up to the grade I stakes include Gustav Schickedanz homebred Will She and Godolphin Racing homebred Lapinski, by Street Cry. Will She drew off late to score by two lenghs Aug. 26 going seven furlongs on the Woodbine turf while Lapinski iced seven rivals in her Aug. 25 debut sprinting on the Arlington International Racecourse turf.

The Natalma is a Breeders' Cup Challenge Win and You're In race to the Juvenile Fillies Turf.