Kentucky dirt holds the key for a Uruguayan mare in the Falls City Stakes on Thursday at Churchill Downs. The Falls City, a Grade 3 worth $400,000, carded for fillies and mares at 1 1/8 miles, drew eight entrants. The field lacks standouts, and while Tarifa at 9-5 and Musical Mischief at 2-1 fit the spot, neither horse seems worth a bet at those prices. It’s a good bet Quatro Y Vinte won’t be nearly as high a price as the 30-1 at which the morning line pegs her. Still, at even at a third of those odds, Quatro Y Vinte merits a look. Bred in Uruguay, Quatro Y Vinte made her first 15 starts there, winning five, including a Group 3, and placing at the Group 1 level. Key points: 14 of those 15 races came on dirt, all the mare’s best performances between 1 1/8 and 1 1/4 miles. In her North American debut last month at Keeneland, Quatro Y Vinte finished a close fourth going 1 1/16 miles on grass. “I did enter her a couple times on dirt and the race never went,” said trainer Paulo Lobo, who has won with six of his 13 starters at this Churchill meet. Lobo notes Quatro Y Vinte, by T.H. Approval, has a turf-leaning pedigree. Yet the Keeneland race as much as anything served as a stepping-stone toward Thursday’s nine-furlong dirt contest. :: Get the Inside Track with the FREE DRF Morning Line Email Newsletter. Subscribe now.  “I thought she ran very well last time,” Lobo said. “The main thing here is the distance – she will love the distance. I know the race is very tough, but she’s doing very well.” Three-year-old Tarifa brings a 2-0-0-0 Churchill mark into the Falls City, her first start against older horses. Fourth in a first-level Churchill allowance race last fall, Tarifa finished ninth at odds of 5-1 in the Kentucky Oaks. A Godolphin homebred trained by Brad Cox, Tarifa came into the Oaks carrying less weight than ideal and responded favorably to a freshening, returning to the races in August a more robust specimen. She finished third behind Thorpedo Anna and Gun Song in the Grade 1 Cotillion, then beat Gun Song over 1 1/8 miles in the Grade 2 Mother Goose at Aqueduct. The form is solid, far from spectacular. Same goes for Musical Mischief, a Michael McCarthy-trained 4-year-old who makes her first start since, like so many horses this year on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, being purchased by Wathnan Racing. Musical Mischief campaigned for Stoneway Farm when she scored a breakthrough victory Sept. 16 in the Grade 2 Locust Grove at Churchill, winning by 3 1/4 lengths. The Locust Grove runner-up, Corningstone, is an Indiana-bred with a career-best 84 Beyer Speed Figure, while Musical Mischief was beaten almost six lengths in her only stakes start over 1 1/8 miles. Loved, third choice on the line at 3-1, drops in class following a fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Spinster at Keeneland. Historically a pace player, Loved has failed to make the lead in her last three starts, which could mean she’s lost her speed, or that she’s due for a better race if capable of finding the front. The other four exit Kentucky allowance races. Quatro Y Vinte exits a shorter turf race – the key to a potential Falls City upset. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.