Fields Taking Shape for Festival Day

With two weeks to go to the Arlington International Festival of Racing, the fields for the various big-money races are shaping up. The Festival will take place on Saturday August 17, 2013 and will feature five major races on the turf and an international cast of thoroughbred racing stars. Festival day includes two Breeders’ Cup World Championships ‘Win and You’re In’ races, the Grade I Beverly D. Handicap for fillies and mares going 1 3/16 miles, and the Grade I Arlington Million at 1 ¼ miles for three-year-olds and upwards.

Stephanie's Kitten a Breeders Cup champ

A couple of possibilities to go to the gate in the Beverly D. with a big shot at winning are Stephanie’s Kitten and Marketing Mix. Ken and Sarah Ramsey’s Stephanie’s Kitten was the 2012 winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, and is two-for-three in graded-stakes events this year alone, including the one-mile Just a Game Stakes on a yielding turf at Belmont in June. Most recently she finished third in the Diana Stakes at Saratoga, and boasts a lifetime record of seven wins, and four thirds in 13 starts.

Marketing Mix unbeaten so far this year

Marketing Mix, meanwhile, is expected to ship into Arlington from California to challenge for the Beverly D. title. The runner-up in the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, Marketing Mix is two-for-two since then, with both graded-stakes wins in 2013 coming at Hollywood Park. An Ontario-bred out of two-time BC Classic runner-up Medagalia d’ Oro, she began her four-year-old campaign by taking the Grade I Gamely Stakes and followed that with a win in the Grade III Sunset Handicap.  She has 10 wins in 18 lifetime starts, and career earnings of more than $1.8 million.