Expert Pick of the Week: 2023 My Charmer Stakes

Dec 06, 2023 John Mucciolo

A well-matched cast of 10 fillies and mares will run 1 1/16 miles at Turfway Park in Saturday’s $125,000 My Charmer S. Augustin Stable’s homebred Mouffy was victorious in the Ellis Park Turf S. two prior and comes off of a good try when beaten by one length in the Ontario Matron S. (G3) at Woodbine over the synthetic surface last time out. The lightly raced bay has run well in all but one lifetime try to date, and she is the Expert Pick of the Week.

Trained by Jonathan Thomas, the daughter of Uncle Mo was a debut winner on the all-weather at Gulfstream Park as a sophomore and capped her abbreviated three-race campaign with an allowance tally on the Keeneland dirt oval. She failed to fire in her 2024 bow, but she beat allowance foes on the green at Indiana three races back, and the four-year-old has shown nice improvement in her two assignments since having blinkers added.

The strong late runner has trained forwardly on the strip leading up to Saturday, and the bay will have a swift and contested pace to rally into, as well. Tyler Conner will guide the leading selection.

#3 Mouffy adds blinkers today and makes it back-to-back wins in the Ellis Park Turf S.! 🤩

Jonathon Thomas trains the 4-year-old filly and Emmanuel Esquivel was in the saddle.

A 5/1 top selection #ExpertPick from @JoeyDaKRacing! 💰

🎥 #TwinSpiresReplay pic.twitter.com/aQOlBqKrDE

— TwinSpires Racing 🏇 (@TwinSpires) August 27, 2023

Catiche dons a 7-2-4-0 mark in her lifetime on synthetic surfaces, including a stakes second on the Turfway Park oval. Purchased for $445,000 this season, she has been working in very good fashion in anticipation of her return, with a pair of bullet moves on the course recently. The Arrogate filly is versatile in her running style, and she is also classy enough to take this field down with something resembling her best performance. Trained by Michael Stidham, the four-year-old Kentucky-bred could be sitting fairly close in the early stages while coming in fresh with Gerardo Corrales in the stirrups.

Whitworth Beckman’s Lexa makes a first run on the synthetic and has shown marked improvement in preparation for this affair. The Gun Runner sophomore has not been the most consistent horse in training in her career, but she responded to the removal of blinkers in her latest venture and will add good value to the race with hot local pilot Luan Machado taking the reins.

Expert Pick:

An exacta with #8 Mouffy on top of #3 Catiche and #7 Lexa in the 2023 My Charmer Stakes is the Best Bet of the Week.