Betting With, and Against, Our Pretty Woman in the Monomoy Girl Stakes

A total of six sophomore fillies will run 1 1/16 miles on the Churchill Downs main surface in Saturday’s $175,000 Monomoy Girl S. Steve Asmussen’s #2 Our Pretty Woman (7-5) has been installed as the morning-line favorite for the affair in search of her initial stakes triumph. 

Our Pretty Woman – With

• $20 win #2 Our Pretty Woman ($20)
• $20 exacta 2 with 4 ($20)

Our Pretty Woman – Against

• $40 exacta 4 with 2 ($40)

The $900,000 yearling purchase surely looked worth the investment in winning her first two lifetime starts at Fair Grounds this season. She strode home a convincing debut winner going two turns on January 18, and followed that smart effort up with a facile score in a subsequent allowance victory at 1 1/16 miles when leading at every call. 

Our Pretty Woman got her first real test in the Fair Grounds Oaks (G2) and finished a stubborn second after leading early and digging deep in the stretch. The Courtland Farms’ color bearer drew widest of all in the Kentucky Oaks (G1) in her latest venture and was empty in the stretch when checking in 11th. 

She is not especially fast from the gate, but the filly draws inside of the other forwardly placed runners in this spot and looks to be the one to run down turning for home. I feel that if she repeats her Fair Grounds Oaks performance, then she will be tough to upend with Luis Saez in the controls. 

Golden Rod S. (G2) queen #6 Intricate (8-5) looked like a star in her two-year-old season, but the Brendan Walsh charge has not built upon that as of yet in 2024. Her last showing was particularly concerning when she was a non-factor in the Fair Grounds Oaks, and I feel that it’s hard to trust her here despite her affinity for the surface and her back class. I acknowledge that she is the lone horse in training to have defeated the exquisite Thorpedo Anna, but until she gets back to her two-year-old form, I’ll let her beat me. 

This particular race features just a single consistent late runner, and that is Martha Washington S. vixen #4 Band of Gold (9-2). Trained by Kenny McPeek, the gray showed little interest on the lawn last time out and gets back on her preferred surface where she gamely broke her maiden in November. She doesn’t appear to be as good as some of her foes, but she will have a lot of tired legs in front of her in the stretch. Brian Hernandez, Jr. has the call.