Exotics Plays for the Valley View Stakes

An overflow field of 16 three-year-old fillies have been entered for the $350,000 Valley View S. (G2) at Keeneland on Friday. The ultra-competitive grassy tilt features numerous logical win threats in a race that is difficult for me to narrow down to just a single runner. I expect there to be healthy mutuels following the contest, so spreading with multiple runners is a good way to attack the event. 

Valley View Exotics

• $1 exacta box 4,8,9,11 ($12)
• 50-cent trifecta 9,11 with 4,8,9,11 with 4,8,9,11 ($12)
• 10-cent superfecta 9,11 with 4,8,9,11 with 4,8,9,11 with all ($10.80)
• 10-cent superfecta 9,11 with 4,8,9,11 with all with 4,8,9,11 ($10.80)

Despite the lack of pace signed on for the tilt, I still have a liking for the late-running #9 Dancing N Dixie (12-1) at a big price under John Velazquez. The dual stakes heroine didn’t run her best race over the unique Kentucky Downs strip at 1 5/16 miles in her latest appearance, but she gets on a surface that she is comfortable with as well as retreating back to eight furlongs, which I feel is a good distance for her. 

The bargain $35,000 purchase possesses a consistently good turn of foot and has kept very good company in her career, which includes a win in the Tepin S. at Churchill Downs and a close third in the Appalachian S. (G2) on this course in April. Trained by Mark Casse, the Florida-bred daughter of Neolithic is too good of a price to overlook for the exotics. 

Two-time stakes victress #11 Nice as Pie (10-1) earned a 100 Brisnet Late Pace number when just missing in the Penn Oaks two back in her lone route run to date, and the Kelsey Danner charge is another who must be included at a hefty number. The Dede McGehee homebred checked in fourth in the deep Presque Isle Masters S. (G2) most recently off the shelf and will use that as a springboard to this endeavor following a trio of swift half-mile morning drills beneath the Twin Spires as of late. Tapiture filly will rally from off the pace beneath Adam Beschizza. 

Christophe Clement’s #4 Les Reys (5-2) made good in her stateside debut when eclipsing the Winter Memories S. at Aqueduct on Sept. 13 to run her winning streak to three. The French import has come into her own as a three-year-old and seems poised to have an impact on the affair in her second run off the bench with Flavien Prat taking the reins. 

I’m also intrigued by #8 Buttercream Babe (9-2) for trainer Mike Maker. Twirling Candy filly fell just three lengths short in the lucrative Music City S. (G2) while sprinting at Kentucky Downs in her latest, and the bay will appreciate the move to one mile on Friday. The Kentucky-bred has a measure of early speed in a field lacking pace, and she figures to sit a fine trip while always close to a moderate tempo under Irad Ortiz Jr.