Betting With, and Against, Sandy Bottom in the Roxelana Stakes

The opening-night feature at Churchill Downs on Saturday is the $200,000 Roxelana S. Seven fillies and one mare will go postward in the six-furlong heat on the main oval. Stakes vixen #2 Sandy Bottom (5-2) is the logical morning-line choice and one to beat for conditioner Mike McCarthy, and she will also be the one to catch. 

Sandy Bottom – With

• $18 exacta 2 with 5,8 ($36)
• $4 trifecta key 2 with 5,8 ($8)

Sandy Bottom – Against

• $1 trifecta 5,8 with 2,5,8 with all ($24)
• $1 superfecta 5,8 with 2,5,8 with 2,5,8 with all ($20)

Bred in the Bluegrass State, the $145,000 yearling purchase commenced her career at Del Mar in 2023 and made good at first asking with a facile sprint tally over special weight foes. The bay capped her two-race juvenile campaign with a score in the Anoakia S. at Santa Anita, and following more than 12 months off, the daughter of Omaha Beach toppled Grade-1 heroine Tamara in a high-quality allowance heat in November. Unplaced in the La Brea S. (G1) in her sophomore finale, the lightly raced filly was last seen checking in third in the Carousel S. at Oaklawn Park on Feb. 23. 

Sandy Bottom has trained well in advance of her local debut and is the inside pace of the race. She will be tough to reel in if she has things her own way early on, with Joel Rosario inheriting the mount. 

Eddie Kenneally’s #8 Mink’s Palace (4-1) has finished off the board in her two prior stakes tries in advance of this one, but those races were not run at Churchill, where the four-year-old dons a 5-3-1-1 mark. The bay daughter of Palace Malice is a different animal beneath the Twin Spires and will settle off the pace while in the clear every step of the way from the outside post slot. She is the main danger to the favorite, with the in-form Luis Saez taking the reins. 

2024 Game Face S. victress #5 Miuccia (8-1) has recorded each of her trio of lifetime wins at the six-furlong distance for trainer Gustavo Delgado. The Grade-3 placed daughter of Mitole is unraced since February, but she can be very good on her best day, and she relishes six panels, in general. The bay has the tactical speed to stay in touch with the leader from the start and will be poised to make a run at the top of the lane with Brian Hernandez, Jr. taking the reins. 

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