Isabella Sings Seeks Redemption in Hillsborough

While Siena Farm's homebred Isabella Sings will be out to reaffirm her status as a graded stakes winner March 11 in the $200,000 Hillsborough Stakes (G2T), Godolphin's homebred Dickinson wants to prove her single win in graded company was no fluke.

And it may only be a sixteenth of a mile that decides.

Isabella Sings, a 5-year-old daughter of Eskendereya—Isobel Baillie, by Lomitas, is the 120-pound highweight in a field of 10 entered in Tampa Bay Downs' 1 1/8-mile turf contest for fillies and mares 4-year-olds and older. She is trained by Todd Pletcher and will be ridden by John Velazquez.

The chestnut mare comes into the race off a strong, three-length win the Lambholm South Endeavour Stakes (G3T) at Tampa Bay Downs Feb. 11. In that 8 1/2-furlong race, Isabella Sings beat Martin Schwartz' Irish-bred Light In Paris and Lambholm Stable's Evidently, who will both be challenging her again in the Hillsborough Stakes.

Isabella Sings, a four-time graded stakes winner, tried the Hillsborough Stakes last year and nearly took the race gate-to-wire, in the same fashion that she won the recent Endeavor. But in 2016, she couldn't hold off a late course record-setting charge by grass champion Tepin, who stopped the timer in 1:46.2.

There is no Tepin equivalent in the field this year but Isabella Sings, despite her obvious talent, still has yet to hit the wire first going 1 1/8 miles. Out of four starts at the distance, she's finished second once and third twice. Never by much.

For Isabella Sings to finally garner that nine-furlong win, she'll have to outperform an improving Dickinson. The 5-year-old daughter of Medaglia d'Oro  —Little Belle, by A.P. Indy, comes into the Hillsborough off a 1 1/4-length win in the 1 1/8-mile Suwannee River Stakes (G3T) at Gulfstream Park Feb. 11.

The Suwannee River was the mare's first win in a graded stakes and her first win at the distance, but she earned a 115 Equibase Speed Figure for her effort and defeated Sandiva, who beat both Dickinson and Isabella Sings in their 2017 debuts in the Marshua's River Stakes (G3T) at Gulfstream.

Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin has carefully managed Dickinson, who has made only 12 starts in four seasons. But she's won five times and placed in three other races. She also has thrived since being switched to the grass at Parx Racing last September. In four starts on the turf since Sept. 6, she's won three times.

Elysea's World, who showed a strong closing kick when second to Dickinson in the Suwannee River Stakes, may be a factor, too. The 4-year-old filly Champs Elysees—Ideal World, by Singspiel, is grade 2-placed with a record of three wins and two seconds out of eight lifetime starts for owners Sheep Pond Partners and All Pro Racing. She is trained by Chad Brown and will be ridden by Joel Rosario. Brown, incidentally, also trains Light In Paris, who will be ridden by Daniel Centeno.

The mystery horse in the field is Juddmonte Farms' homebred Swiss Range, a 4-year-old daughter of Zamindar—Spanish Sun, by El Prado, who won two stakes at Newmarket last year and finished fourth in the Qatar Nassau Stakes (G1) at Goodwood under the care of conditioner John Gosden. She will be making both her U.S. and 2017 debut for trainer Bill Mott and will be ridden by Julien Leparoux.