Cardinal draws overflow field of 16

Catalano's filly has displayed early speed throughout her

career and will need another alert start after she drew the inside post for

Saturday's race. Jockey Calvin Borel will ride I'm Already Sexy, who will carry

the highweight of 119 pounds in the Cardinal.

A victory by I'm Already Sexy in the Cardinal would provide

Catalano with his third Churchill Downs stakes victory of 2014, following

triumphs in the Grade 3 Regret (via disqualification) by Aurelia's Belle and West

Coast Belle in the Rags to Riches overnight stakes. Catalano's breakthrough

season also has included his first leading trainer title at Churchill Downs

after he saddled seven winners during the 12-day September meet to share that honor with

Steve Asmussen.

The other members of Catalano's Cardinal trio are Angegreen, who is winless in 11

U.S. starts but finished a fast-closing third last time out in a

division of the Kentucky Downs Ladies Marathon at 1 5/16 miles, and Imposing Grace, winner of the

Grade 3 Arlington Matron last year on the

Chicago track's synthetic Polytrack. Channing Hill will ride Angegreen under a

114-pound impost from post 4, while Imposing Grace will also carry

114 as she breaks from post 7 under Rafael Mojica Jr.

An intriguing invader for the Cardinal is Grade 3 heroine Nellie Cashman, who returns to

Churchill for the first time since a sixth-place run in last fall's Grade 2 Mrs.

Revere. Trained by Francis "Trey" Abbott III, the four-year-old daughter of

Mineshaft scored

a comfortable victory in a Laurel Park turf allowance on September 26 to snap a

six-racing losing streak that began last fall with a runner-up finish in Keeneland's

Grade 3 Valley View.

Nellie Cashman, a Pennsylvania-bred filly who trains at Maryland's Fair

Hill Training Center, will break from post 8 under regular rider Forest

Boyce. Nellie Cashman was assigned the second high weight of 117 pounds for the

Cardinal.

Another Cardinal contender could be

Royal Fury, runner-up the Grade 2 Canadian on the Woodbine grass two back for

trainer Brian Lynch. The Langfuhr mare has run strongly in the second half of

2014 with performances that includes runner-up finishes in the Grade 3 Ontario

Matron and Trillium Stakes over Woodbine's Polytrack. Julien Leparoux will ride Royal Fury,

who totes 116 pounds, from the outside gate in the field of 14.

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