Ready to Please the Choice in Winning Colors

(from Churchill Downs report)
James Scatuorchio’s Ready to Please, a graded stakes winner at 3 and an impressive winner earlier in the Churchill Downs meet, heads a field of eight fillies and mares for the $100,000-added Winning Colors (gr. III) at six furlongs, the Memorial Day holiday feature at the Louisville track.

Ready to Please, a Todd Pletcher-trained 4-year-old daughter of More Than Ready  , snapped a seven-race losing streak when she defeated Winning Colors rival Ocean Current in a six-furlong allowance race at Churchill Downs on April 28.

Pletcher’s filly won the Fantasy (gr. II) at Oaklawn Park last year and finished third to Bushfire in the Mother Goose (gr. I) as well, but assistant trainer Mike McCarthy believes that Ready to Please could be at her best in races at one-turn distances.

“I think the one turn works to her advantage,” he said.  “There’s a lot of options this year – especially with a Breeders’ Cup (sprint) race for fillies. Whether she’s that good, I don’t know – but it really gets you thinking. I hope she can get to be that good.”

The victory in her allowance prep for the Winning Colors lifted the career record of Ready to Please to 4-2-2 in 13 races with earnings of $316,919.  Jockey Robby Albarado, who has enjoyed a sizzling week that has placed him at the top of the spring meet jockey standings, has the mount on the strong 8-5 favorite.

The chief rivals to Ready to Please could be Roll Reroll Stable’s Miss Macy Sue (5-2) and Overbrook Farm’s homebred Ocean Current (3-1).
           
Miss Macy Sue invades from Iowa’s Prairie Meadows off consecutive stakes wins at the Iowa track and at Oaklawn Park. Eusebio Razo Jr. will ride the Kelly Von Hemel trainee. Ocean Current (3-1), a daughter of Storm Cat ridden by Mark Guidry, has been first or second in eight of 10 starts and won the Mademoiselle Stakes at Delta Downs.
 
$100,000 Winning Colors Stakes (gr. III, Race 10, 5:51 p.m.), Fillies & Mares 3 & Up, 6 Furlongs
PP. Horse, Jockey, ML Odds
1. Ready to Please (KY), Robby Albarado, 8/5
2. Morner (KY), Julien R. Leparoux, 12/1
3. Ocean Current (KY), Mark Guidry, 3/1
4. Flashy Lady (KY), Jamie Theriot, 15/1
5. Morethanaprincess (MD), Miguel Mena, 10/1
6. Cuaba (KY), Larry Melancon, 8/1
7. Miss Macy Sue (FL), Eusebio Razo, Jr., 5/2
8. Arradoul (KY), Corey J. Lanerie, 20/1
Each assigned 118 pounds.