La Cara wires Ashland in final stop on Road to Kentucky Oaks

Apr 07, 2025 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

La Cara set the pace and held on from Take Charge Milady in the Ashland (Photo by Coady Media)

Tracy Farmer’s homebred La Cara, who captured the first scoring race on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks last fall, furnished a neat piece of symmetry by taking the series finale in the $742,782 Ashland (G1) at Keeneland.

Originally slated for Friday, the 1 1/16-mile test was postponed to Monday because of adverse weather in the Bluegrass over the weekend. Muhimma went off as the odds-on favorite, with fans expecting her to rebound from her first loss in the Honeybee (G3).

La Cara surprisingly drifted up to 9-1, despite her solid resume for dual Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse in Oaks points races. The winner of the Sept. 14 Pocahontas (G3) at Churchill Downs, the Road to the Kentucky Oaks kickoff, La Cara got no nearer than fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1).

But the daughter of 2007 Kentucky Derby (G1) champion Street Sense romped next time in the Feb. 8 Suncoast S. at Tampa Bay Downs, and she was most recently second in the March 1 Davona Dale (G2) at Gulfstream Park.

Casse was using that race as a stepping stone to the Ashland, implying that La Cara had a right to move forward at Keeneland, and so she did. In a repeat of her Suncoast tactics, La Cara hustled straight to the early lead for jockey Dylan Davis and never looked back.

Carving out splits of :23.19, :47.23 and 1:12.50 on the fast track, La Cara opened up by daylight on the far turn. Her early pursuers Look Forward and Running Away were dropping back. Muhimma advanced into a chasing second, but couldn’t close the gap, and La Cara actually widened her advantage to 3 1/2 lengths in the stretch.

Then the closer Take Charge Milady offered a strong rally on the inside, driving past Muhimma and gaining on the leader. La Cara had too much of a cushion to be caught, however, and she crossed the wire with 1 1/4 lengths to spare.

“That was the plan,” Davis said of the front-running tactics. “Mark (Casse) and I talked about it, to break sharply. We saw a lot of speed in this race, so we wanted to just get the best position possible, and that’s what she did.

“She established dominance early, and then she just took control all the way through the wire. She was looking around a little bit (as we turned for home), so I just had to stay with her and keep her to task to the wire. She ran very well.”

“When she brings her A game, she’s tough,” Casse said. “Dylan said when he was coming down the backside, he thought, ‘Oh, I have the filly I had in Tampa that day’ (in the Suncoast). He said he could tell the difference.

“We knew the Davona Dale, it was just a prep. We brought her back a little quick (for that race) so I could have more time for this race, and it worked out. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but today was good.”

La Cara ($20.16) earns 100 Kentucky Oaks points! 🌸

The 3-year-old daughter of Street Sense takes the initiative from the gate under jockey @DavisJockey to take the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland for trainer @markecasse and owner & breeder Tracy Farmer.#TwinSpiresReplay pic.twitter.com/kLI26wb3X6

— TwinSpires Racing 🏇 (@TwinSpires) April 7, 2025

La Cara, who finished in 1:45.10, rewarded her loyalists with $20.16. Her resume now reads 9-4-2-0, $866,083.

By adding 100 more points to her Oaks account, La Cara brought up her total to 151.75. She ranks second on the leaderboard behind Quietside (168 points).

Take Charge Milady’s fine second earned her 50 points for an overall tally of 70. With a better passage, she might have emulated paternal grandmother Take Charge Lady, the 2002 Ashland star and Kentucky Oaks (G1) runner-up.

“She looks so much like” Take Charge Lady, said their trainer, Kenny McPeek.

“I wish we had a little smoother trip around the second turn,” Take Charge Milady’s jockey, Brian Hernandez Jr., noted. “We got a little hung up a bit in traffic, but once it all cleared up she ran on great.

“If I had gotten around the second turn a little smoother, she would have won. Around the second turn, the winner kind of got the jump and I was following (third-place finisher) Muhimma, who didn’t quicken much.”

Muhimma checked in another 3 1/4 lengths adrift in third (picking up 25 points for a total of 50), and Supa Speed was the same margin away in fourth (15 points for a total of 27.5). Amarth rounded out the top five (10 points for a total of 35). Next came Look Forward, Admit, and Running Away.

Kentucky-bred La Cara is out of the Bernardini mare Cara Caterina, who is a full sister to Grade 1 winners To Honor and Serve and Angela Renee (the 2015 Ashland runner-up) . Cara Caterina is also a half-sister to Grade 1-placed stakes scorer Elnaawi, a son of Street Sense and thereby closely related to La Cara.