The Road to the Kentucky Oaks (G1) moves to Turfway Park on Friday with the 44th running of the $175,000 Cincinnati Trophy Stakes, with a field of 11 3-year-olds entered.
The 1-mile race over the synthetic surface offers Kentucky Oaks qualifying points on a sliding scale of 20-10-6-4-2 to the top five finishers. It also gives trainers a chance to see if their fillies are talented enough to move forward on the road to the Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 1.
Godolphin’s Dame Laura is the 2-1 morning-line favorite as she looks to build on a dominant performance over this same course.
Trained by Brendan Walsh and ridden by Edgar Morales, Dame Laura, a daughter of Munnings, is the filly to beat. After showing talent in Kentucky last fall, including a credible second at Keeneland and a third at Churchill Downs in allowance races, she dominated her 2026 debut on Jan. 9, winning a 1-mile optional claimer by 5 ¾ lengths at Turfway.
The chestnut filly leaves from gate 8. Post time for the race is 9:55 p.m. ET.
This should be quite a competitive race. Among the top threats are Map of the Moon at 3-1, Coco Connect at 7-2, and Resist at 10-1.
Trained by Kelsey Danner, Map of the Moon is unbeaten at 3-0, including a victory in the Gowell Stakes at Turfway on Jan. 1. A daughter of Liam’s Map, the dark bay filly should stalk the pace and make her run in the stretch under jockey Victor Carrasco.
Coco Connect, trained by John Ennis, has won three of five starts, including her last two, an optional claimer on Jan. 6 and the Valdale Stakes on Feb. 7, both at Turfway.
At 10-1, who can resist a wager on Resist? The A daughter of Maclean’s Music, unbeaten Resist, 2-0, leaves from the outside post 11 but comes into the race off a strong closing victory in a 1-mile optional claimer at Turfway on Jan. 22.
Dame Laura is the logical bet off her recent 5 ¾-length win, but at 2-1, consider an exacta that pairs her with either Map of the Moon or, better yet, Resist.
The writing team at US Racing is comprised of both full-time and part-time contributors with expertise in various aspects of the Sport of Kings.
