Is she a horse who needed just about every inch of nine furlongs to win last year’s Ladies? Or the one who closed nicely to win the six-furlong Jameela in July?

The answer to all of these questions is, of course, yes, which, if she were less talented, would likely be a source of frustration. As it is, she’s won six of 26 starts, including two stakes, and she’s earned nearly $350,000.

“That’s part of the fun of training, trying to figure them out,” Keefe said.

Coconut Cake is 3-1 on the morning line as she seeks to defend her title Saturday in the grassy, nine-furlong Ladies. It will mark her third Maryland Million start; she ran on the dirt in the 2021 Distaff, finishing fourth behind Hello Beautiful.

Coconut Cake has won once – in the Jameela – in five outings this season. But her two two-turn tries – which Keefe believed after her bang-up finish to 2022 was her preferred trip – have been disappointing, a sixth-place finish in the Big Dreyfus followed by the seventh in the All Brandy.

“This year has been a little bit up and down,” Keefe acknowledged.

Coconut Cake has posted two works since the August 19 All Brandy. She zipped a half-mile in 48 3/5 seconds September 10, which was the second-fastest of 36 at the distance that day. Then October 1, she went a half on the turf in 52 seconds flat, which was the fastest of three workers.

“I’m happy with the way she’s going,” Keefe said. “I haven’t run her since mid-August. I just wanted to get her ready for the Million and point towards that.”

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Keefe believes the major issue in her last two starts was mental, rather than physical.

“It’s just about getting her mind right,” he said. “And in her last two, the Big Dreyfus and the All Brandy, it’s just getting her to take a deep breath and relax. It’s not something that she either does or doesn’t like, about the mile or the two turns, it’s more about her mental side, you know, just trying to get her to relax.”

To that end, he’s been training her in company more frequently to get – or keep – her used to running with other horses. And he’ll give a leg up to veteran jockey Sheldon Russell, who won on her in last year’s Ladies and also in the Jameela.

Keefe is scheduled to saddle two in in the Ladies, with Glenangus Farm’s Proper Storm (20-1) arriving off a dominant win last out in lifetime claiming company. The five-year-old Bourbon Courage mare has made just 11 career starts and will have Johan Rosado in the irons.

“She’s kind of coming around, and she ran a huge race for us at Pimlico last time,” Keefe said of Proper Storm. “You know, the option was either this race or the starter race. She does like longer the better, so I look for her to run a decent race for us, too.”

The morning line favorite in the Ladies is the Michael Gorham-trained Downtown Katie. She closed nicely to be first past the post in the All Brandy but was disqualified after drifting in on a rival. Regular pilot Jaime Rodriguez has the return mount.

Really, though, the key question heading into the Ladies is which Coconut Cake we’ll see. Certainly, it’s a question Tim Keefe is eager to learn the answer to.

“Physically she’s doing great,” he said of Coconut Cake. “If she can take a deep breath and she’s pretty controlled and relaxed in the paddock and warming up with Sheldon, I’ll feel pretty good about things.”

The Ladies is carded as the third race on a 12-race program with a projected post time of 12:38 p.m.