Most of the main players in this race are exiting the New York Oaks at Finger Lakes. While a few horses didn’t have great trips in that spot, I still can’t argue with anyone who asserts that Split Time (3) was just superior to that group. It appeared that many of her rivals just couldn’t get the distance as they faded in the final furlong, and she was one of the only fillies that was striding out powerfully across the wire. She’s been the picture of consistency in her 7-start career and she clearly knows how to get her nose down on the wire first. If she works out a decent trip, I think she’s going to be awfully tough to beat.

The only filly that I think has a chance to beat her is PURELY LUCKY (1), who switches back to the dirt. It’s possible that this filly is strictly a turf horse, but I’m intrigued by this surface switch because she may just be vastly improved now. She was nothing special when she last tried dirt over the winter, and she didn’t run quite as badly as the final margins would suggest in her pair of losses to English Soul. However, since then she has completely turned her form around. She apparently loved the stretch-out in distance two back when she beat a solid allowance field, and she followed that up with a surprisingly strong effort against open company going 1 1/4 miles. Her connections showed great confidence that day as they actually skipped her N2X NY-bred allowance condition to run in that race, and they’re again getting ambitious here. She clearly possesses a ton of stamina, and that should come in handy as long as she handles the dirt. Her recent workouts suggest that such an idea isn’t so far-fetched, as she has been working very well. Her August 11 drill in particular is noteworthy, merely for the fact that it was in company with Monomoy Girl, and Purely Lucky held her own.