Leading the 2025 wish list for longtime Central Kentucky owner/breeders Tracy and Carol Farmer was winning the $750,000 Ashland Stakes (G1), a historically important prep race April 7 at Keeneland for the Kentucky Oaks (G1), and run only a few miles from the couple's Shadowlawn Farm.
La Cara, a homebred daughter of Street Sense , answered that wish in commanding style, capturing the final qualifying race on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks schedule gate to wire by 1 1/4 lengths.
"I wanted this one for them," said trainer Mark Casse. "In January, I asked the Farmers what they wanted to do. They said, 'We really want to win the Ashland.' So we came up with a plan to win the Ashland."
Casse pauses and laughs, "My job is done."
La Cara completed the 1 1/16 miles in 1:45.10 and paid $20.16 to win. Take Charge Milady closed for second while Muhimma finished third.
The target put on the Ashland came at exactly the right time. La Cara had already signaled that her ability was black-type caliber when Casse shipped her to Churchill Downs about a year ago to make her racing debut.
"I told the Farmers, Joe Miller, and Lincoln Collins, I had just shipped this filly to Churchill Downs, and I think she's pretty good. That was La Cara," Casse said, referring to the Farmers' advisers. "I trained her mom, and she could not out-run you or me, but she has a tremendous pedigree."
La Cara's first race in which she took the lead, her second career start, resulted in a second-place finish at Churchill Downs. By the summer, she broke her maiden by eight lengths at Saratoga Race Course and then won the Pocahontas Stakes (G3) at Churchill by three-quarters of a length last September. The Pocahontas was the first Kentucky Oaks qualifying race for the 2024-25 schedule.
Her speed continued to sharpen as she matured, delivering a gate-to-wire win in the Suncoast Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, where she won by 6 1/4 lengths with Dylan Davis in the irons. She lost a little of that edge in the Davona Dale Stakes (G2), her last start prior to the Ashland, where she was second behind The Queens M G.
Casse knew La Cara had her edge back going into the Ashland.
"I knew there was a lot of speed in there, and she likes speed up close," he said. "I told Dylan she would be sharper today than she was in the Davona Dale, just get her away from there. Dylan said going down the backside, he felt 'This is the horse I rode at Tampa.'"
"That was the plan, to break sharply," Davis said after the race. "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."
The Ashland gave La Cara another 100 qualifying points for the Kentucky Oaks, raising her total to 151.75 points and putting her in second place on the Oaks leaderboard. The top five finishers received points on a 100-50-25-15-10 scale.
"It sets up perfect," Casse said about the Oaks. "She's now at three starts off the layoff, so she should be perfect. She loves Churchill, and we'll be OK to come back a little quicker. So I'm good."
La Cara is the first foal and first graded stakes winner for her dam Cara Caterina, a daughter of Bernardini that the Farmers bought for $500,000 during the 2018 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Cara Caterina is out of stakes winner Pilfer (Deputy Minister), making her a full sister to multiple grade 1 winner To Honor and Serve and to grade 1 winner Angela Renee (who also ran second in the 2015 Ashland Stakes).
Cara Caterina has a yearling full brother to La Cara. Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Street Sense stands at Darley near Lexington for a $50,000 fee in 2025.
