Coconut Cake has been installed as the 9-5 morning favorite in what looks to be a contentious race. Thegirlfromireland is 2-1 for trainer Graham Motion, while Mike Gorham will send out 3-1 shot Downtown Katie.

Coconut Cake, trained and co-owned by Tim Keefe, sprinted twice to open her campaign, winning the six-furlong Jameela against state-breds July 1 at Laurel. Two weeks later, the daughter of Grade 3 winner Bandbox pressed the pace before tiring to sixth in the 1 1/8-mile Big Dreyfus.

 “She’s coming into this race well,” Keefe said. “I was a little disappointed in the last race but we’ll throw that one out. She had a nice little work the other day on the grass, she’s happy and doing well. It’s a good distance. Running back with just the Maryland-breds makes it a little bit easier; having said that, it’s certainly not an easy spot. There’s a couple of nice fillies in there that look like they could jump up and run a big race, too.”

Coconut Cake was beaten less than a length when third in last year’s All Brandy. It was the fifth time she had placed in a stakes, three on dirt and two on turf, before breaking through with a popular head victory in the 2022 Maryland Million Ladies going 1 1/8 miles on the grass at Laurel.

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“It’s a good spot for us. It’s the logical spot for us. It’s one of the races we picked out and pointed her toward in our effort to get her to the Maryland Million this year. Hopefully, she’ll run a good race for us,” Keefe said. “I know she’ll run well; hopefully, she can get the job done.”

Sheldon Russell, aboard for each of her last two wins including the Maryland Million, returns to ride from Post 11, outside all but one of her rivals, multiple dirt stakes winner Malibu Beauty, who is one of three horses entered for main track only.

“It’s a good spot,” Keefe said. “She doesn’t have to stand in the gate very long, she can break, sit on the outside and hopefully stalk and come running at the end which she likes to do.”

For her career Coconut Cake has six wins, two seconds, seven thirds and $343,723 in purse earnings from 25 starts. She is the richest mare trained by Keefe, surpassing five-time stakes winner Red’s Round Table. Keefe also had such horses as millionaire Eighttofasttocatch; Celtic Innis, a multiple stakes winner of $648,638; and Grade 2 winner Still Having Fun.

“It’s always nice to have one like her. I was lucky enough to have Celtic Innis. I was lucky enough to have Red’s Round Table, though she didn’t last quite as long as some of the others; certainly Eighttofasttocatch and now this one,” Keefe said. I wish I had a barn full of them for a lot of reasons.”