Auction-Bound Duo of Fionn, Speed Shopper Leads Dowager

The two morning-line favorites for the Oct. 18 Dowager Stakes (G3T) at Keeneland—Fionn and Speed Shopper—can pad their bankrolls and deliver catalog updates ahead of upcoming auctions with quality performances in the $350,000 race. George Messina and Michael Lee's Fionn, a grade 1 winner and earner of more than $2 million, is scheduled to be sold Nov. 2 at Fasig-Tipton's The November Sale, while Gary Barber, Bridlewood Farm, and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners' dual grade 3 winner Speed Shopper goes in the sales ring at Keeneland a day later during the first session of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. Both are cataloged as racing and/or broodmare prospects. Though unplaced in three starts this year, Fionn is favored at 3-1 on the morning line for the Dowager, which drew a full field of 12 fillies and mares to race 1 1/2 miles on turf. Most recently, the 4-year-old Twirling Candy filly ran a close fifth in the Flower Bowl Stakes (G2T) Oct. 1 at Belmont Park. She is 7-1-1 in 13 career starts, with her most prestigious win coming in the Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes (G1T) last year for trainer Brad Cox. Speed Shopper, the 7-2 second favorite, also benefits from class relief, having been outrun in two grade 1s and a grade 2 over her last three starts. The Will Walden-trained 5-year-old Quality Road mare returns to a course and distance over which she took the Bewitch Stakes (G3T) in the spring.