La Cara Returns With Class Edge in Suncoast

Last seen finishing 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 .

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.

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.