From a Charles Town release
John Casey’s Down Town Allen will shoot for her second win in the $200,000 West Virginia Jefferson Security Bank Cavada Breeders’ Classic this Saturday night and inch closer to becoming the first ever West Virginia bred filly or mare to surpass $1 million in career earnings as she leads a field of 8 in the penultimate race on the West Virginia Breeders’ Classics XXVIII card. The 9 race Breeders’ Classics card gets underway at 7pm EST and culminates with the $500,000 West Virginia Breeders’ Classic at 10:47pm.
Now seven-years-old, the mare Casey owns, trains and bred hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down as she comes into the race off a 6 race winning streak and having lost just once in her last 13 outings, dating back to June 2012. Already the richest earning West Virginia bred filly or mare in history, the daughter of Windsor Castle would move within $5,000 of become the first female millionaire the state’s breeding program has produced should she win the Cavada for a second time.
Matt McGowan, who recently returned to the saddle after missing more than a month with an injury rides Down Town Allen who breaks from post 5 as the 6-to-5 morning line favorite.
The second choice on the morning line at 5-to-2 is Red Hot Diva, herself a past winner of a West Virginia Breeders’ Classics race having won last year’s West Virginia Breeders’ Classic Distaff by 6 1/2 lengths. Trained by Ollie Figgins, III, Red Hot Diva cuts back to the seven furlong distance on Saturday from the one mile and a sixteenth she covered in her last start – a 2 3/4 length victory in The Harry Buch Memorial Handicap on September 20.
Travis Dunkelberger has the call.
The primary beneficiary of Down Town Allen scratching from the Cavada on race day last year was Premier Stables Unlimited’s Fear the Facelift who ultimately went off as the odds on, 3-to-5 favorite in the Cavada, down from her 7-to-2 morning line. The Hugh McMahon trainee cruised to a 12 3/4 length win in the race and will attempt to become the third filly to win the Cavada in consecutive years on Saturday evening.
J.D. Acosta, aboard for last year’s win. has the mount once again.
Dora Dora, Donnameade, Sterling’s Diva, Navy Chapel and Red Penny Princess complete the lineup.
(Featured image by Jeff Brammer.)
