Wyomia, Delightful Mary work toward Ashland

Two candidates for next Saturday’s 74th running of the $400,000 Ashland S. (G1)
at Keeneland tuned up for the 1 1/16-mile contest with
works on a cool Saturday morning at the Lexington, Kentucky, track.

Wyomia returns to the Polytrack for the Ashland (Tom Cooley Photography) Wyomia, with jockey Freddie Lenclud aboard, covered a half-mile in :47 4/5 while posting fractions of :11 3/5 and :24. The dark bay miss galloped out five furlongs in 1:01 1/5. “It was a little quicker than I wanted, but it was OK,” said trainer Curtis Garrison, who never has had a starter at Keeneland. Winner of the Grade 3 Mazarine at Woodbine on Polytrack last fall, Wyomia won the Suncoast on dirt at Tampa Bay Downs on March 12 in her 2011 debut after concluding 2010 with a sixth-place finish in the Grade 2 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. “This (the Ashland) has been the plan,” Garrison said. “The race at Tampa was to see if she could handle the dirt in case she goes on to Churchill Downs (for the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks on May 6).”

Grade 1-placed Delightful Mary, working in company with Grade 2 Beaumont possible
starter Silent Moon, covered five furlongs in 1:00 1/5 under jockey Shaun
Bridgmohan. She was caught in fractions of :11 4/5, :23 1/5, :35 1/5 and :48 for
the move.

Third in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies to close out 2010
and a winner in her 2011 debut at Ocala in the fillies division of the O.B.S.
Championship Stakes, Delightful Mary broke off about a
length behind Silent Moon, tracked her workmate to the eighth-pole where she
moved past, finishing two lengths in front at the wire.

“It was a perfect breeze,” said Norman Casse, son of and assistant to trainer
Mark Casse. “As soon as Shaun asked her, she really accelerated. I’m very happy
with it and Shaun was happy.”

Silent Moon finished up the work in 1:00 4/5.