Photo:

Juliana Colombo / Eclipse Sportswir

Trainer Mark Casse’s 3-year-old filly La Cara set a stakes-record
time of 1:38.51 with Dylan Davis aboard in her $150,000, mile-and-40-yard
Suncoast tour de force Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs.

She finished 6 1/4 lengths ahead of Her Laugh, who overcame
a hop at the start to gain the place. Deloraine finished third, Italian Soiree
fourth and Dancing Magic fifth in the field of eight 3-year-old fillies. For
those top five finishers, the race was worth 20-10-6-4-2 points toward
qualifying for the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks on May 2 at Churchill Downs.

Click here for Tampa Bay Downs entries and results.

La Cara lowered Nest’s previous stakes mark, set in 2022, by
0.79 seconds.

Owned by her breeder Tracy Farmer, La Cara is 3-for-7
including the Grade Pocahontas (G3) at Churchill Downs in September. Casse said
the convincing victory basically will make him forget a puzzling fifth-place
finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 1 at Del Mar.

“I was disappointed in her at the Breeders’ Cup. I felt
going in she had a legitimate chance, and she just spun her wheels,” Casse
said. “She came back training really well, and our gang at Palm Meadows, Nick
Tomlinson and crew, did a great job with her. Her last few works have been
really good.

“I was expecting a good effort, but this was beyond my
expectations. The Farmers have been so good to us. This is a homebred, and I
trained her mom (Cara Caterina), who could not outrun you or I. La Cara is her
first foal, but she has a tremendous pedigree, so (the racetrack gene) skipped
a generation.”

Davis, who was riding La Cara for the first time, had that
look after the race a lot of kids sport after their first time on a Disney
ride.

“It was very impressive. I was working with her at Palm
Meadows her last few works, and she is a very classy filly,” Davis said. “I
just let her decide what she wanted to do. She can come off the pace or be on
the lead, and she broke very aggressively and wanted to establish dominance
going into the first turn. I was able to go with it, and she got very
comfortable.

“I asked her around the bend, and she picked up very nicely.
I took a peek back at the eighth pole and no competition, so I was able to take
care of her at that point. She is capable of anything, and we’ll have Mark
decide where she goes to next.”

La Cara, who was sired by 2007 Tampa Bay Derby and Kentucky
Derby winner Street Sense, paid $9.20 to win as the third betting choice in the
eight-horse field.