Grade I winners Tamarando and We Miss Artie head the list of probables for the Grade lll Three Spiral Stakes on March 22 at Turfway Park Cincinnati .
The field for the $125,000 Pure Romance Bourbonette Oaks (gr. III) for fillies, to run the same day, also is taking shape, with Swiss Lake Yodeler topping the likely runners list.
Both the Spiral and Bourbonette Oaks are respective qualifiers for the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks. The Spiral is run at 1 1/8 miles and the Oaks is contested at one mile, both on the track's synthetic Polytrack surface.
Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer trains both Tamarando and Swiss Lake Yodeler for Mr. and Mrs. Larry Williams.
With $625,120 in earnings and 10 starts, Tamarando is one of the most experienced horses expected for the Spiral. Eight of those races came in his 2-year-old season, which he finished with three wins, including the 2012 Del Mar Futurity (gr. I), one second, and three thirds.
"He's been very sound, and he was doing everything we asked him to do," said Hollendorfer, "so we ran him. He fits in this race. It looks like a good spot."
In his first start this year, Tamarando was second to the impressive California Chrome in the state-restricted California Cup Derby at Santa Anita Park. The Bertrando colt subsequently won the El Camino Real Derby (gr. III) Feb. 15, coming wide with his trademark big late run to get up by a half length over multiple grade I-placed runner Dance With Fate.
Tamarando had his final pre-Spiral work March 16 on the Tapeta surface at Golden Gate Fields, covering seven furlongs in 1:28 flat. Russell Baze was aboard for the first time for the El Camino Real and is expected to ride Saturday.
Ken and Sarah Ramsey's We Miss Artie won last year's Dixiana Breeders' Futurity (gr. I) and began 2014 with a runner-up finish in the Kitten's Joy Stakes Jan. 19 at Gulfstream Park for trainer Todd Pletcher. The Artie Schiller colt will look to rebound from an unplaced finish in the Besilu Fountain of Youth Stakes (gr. II) Feb. 22.
