The Pucker Up Stakes used to be part of the Arlington Million undercard on one of the most important racing days in the Midwest. This summer, Arlington Park is being turned to rubble. The Million and the Grade 1 Beverly D. come next weekend at Colonial Downs in Virginia. And the Pucker Up will be run Sunday at Ellis Park. Racing fans can feel free to bemoan the fate of Arlington and the Million, but horseplayers can’t really complain about the depth and breadth of the Grade 3, $300,000 Pucker Up and two more six-figure turf stakes Sunday at Ellis. With nine 3-year-old fillies entered to run 1 1/8 miles, the Pucker Up is the weak link in the chain. A pair of preps for the Ladies Turf and the Turf Classic at the Kentucky Downs meeting drew wildly competitive, overflow fields. Safeen, third at Ellis in the Tepin Stakes and a turf-stakes winner in Indiana earlier in the year, is the 3-1 Pucker Up morning-line favorite. Luis Saez comes in from Saratoga to take the mount for trainer Eddie Kenneally. Safeen is fine, a contender, but not appealing at something like her morning line price. She has tactical speed, seems to be incrementally improving, and while she led and faded to finish a close third in her lone start going as far as 1 1/8 miles, that race in April came following a winter break. :: Bet with the Best! Get Free DRF PPs and Cashback when you wager. Join DRF Bets. The filly with real appeal, potentially at appealing odds, is Frontal Attack. Trainer Chad Brown has started only five different horses in Kentucky since Derby Day, May 6, and, obviously, the heart of his stable beats in New York, but Frontal Attack might quietly be a real talent. A Peter Brant homebred by War Front, Frontal Attack finished an encouraging third making her career debut this past April at Keeneland. She didn’t start again until June 23, when she scored an eye-catching turf maiden win over 1 1/16 miles at Ellis. Frontal Attack was settled at the rear of a nine-horse field turning into the backstretch when her rider must have given the filly subtle cue. Frontal Attack took off. It looked like she was moving roughly twice as fast as any of her opponents as she flew by them going to the half-mile pole. She kept up that momentum past the three-furlong marker and had made the lead past the quarter pole, idling slightly until the jockey asked her a bit more at the sixteenth pole. Even after the sustained move Frontal Attack still had plenty left, widening her lead the last 50 yards and galloping out far in front. She ought to stay nine furlongs and given the nature of the maiden score it’s no wonder Brown moves the horse directly into the Pucker Up. Freydis the Red also is interesting. Her trainer, Kenny McPeek, tried this filly in Grade 1 competition after a maiden win, Freydis the Red finishing a respectable fifth July 8 in the 10-furlong Belmont Oaks. Her nine-furlong Churchill Downs turf maiden win the previous start was strong enough to put Freydis the Red in the mix. Hang the Moon probably didn’t care for soft going last out at Delaware Park and previously had looked like a progressive filly. Turf Cup preview There are no standouts in the $250,000 prep for the Kentucky Downs Turf Cup – just a host of horses capable of winning this 1 1/4-mile contest. The key to this race is in separating which horses truly are prepping for the seven-figure Turf Cup over 1 1/2 miles and which have been aimed for Sunday’s race. Spooky Channel, the 2-1 morning-line favorite, has been away from the races since a commendable third in the Grade 1 Turf Classic on Derby Day at Churchill. He might lie somewhere between the two groups but has won at 1 1/2 miles before and probably is aimed more toward his next start than this one. Cellist, winner of the Louisville Stakes over 1 1/2 miles, hasn’t started yet in 2023 and has a competitive Kentucky Downs showing on his résumé; next time for him, too. And Kitodan hasn’t raced since an easy Kentucky Downs win last September in the Dueling Grounds Derby. We know who’s going to lead – Get Smokin. A pace horse going shorter distances than this, Get Smokin will try to stretch his miler speed over 10 furlongs, and probably won’t make it. :: Bet the races with a $250 First Deposit Match + $10 Free Bet and FREE Formulator PPs! Join DRF Bets. Mike Maker’s pair of entrants, King Cause and Me and Mr. C, surely are well meant since Maker already has United Nations winner Therapist and United Nations third-place finisher Red Knight pointed toward the Turf Cup. King Cause rates a stronger chance here than Me and Mr. C. King Cause has run all his best races over 1 1/8 miles but never has tried 1 1/4 miles. McLovin has longshot appeal making his second start following a long layoff, but he’s also more likely to peak going 1 1/2 miles a few weeks hence than to come back to his best form Sunday. The play is Siege of Boston, 20-1 on the Ellis morning line. Siege of Boston needs the race of his life and might be ready to produce it. A Joe Allen homebred trained by Jimmy Toner, Siege of Boston, a late-developing War Front 4-year-old, has been improving all season, a Churchill flop in May aside. He tried 1 1/8 miles for the second time in his career June 18 at Laurel Park and leveled a second-level allowance field, drawing away late to a 5 1/2-length win with a vast, reaching stride that strongly suggested a horse who’d relish the added ground he gets Sunday. Ladies Turf Mile Trainer Brendan Walsh has two live chances, New Year’s Eve and Princess Theorem, in the $200,000 prep for the Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf Mile. Both horses will need racing luck in a full field of 12, with also-eligibles waiting in the wings. New Year’s Eve gets serious class relief coming out of the Grade 1 Just a Game Stakes at Belmont, where she was overmatched facing the likes of victorious In Italian. Four-year-old New Year’s Eve has lost six straight since she captured the Edgewood Stakes in May 2022 but turned in solid showings in a pair of 2023 races before the Just a Game, caught wide in stakes at Fair Grounds and Churchill. She’ll have plenty of pace to chase Sunday and can get up under Luis Saez. Princess Theorem was last seen finishing a competitive fourth in the Gallorette at Pimlico, a race won by Whitebeam, who upset In Italian in the Grade 1 Diana at Saratoga last month. At age 5, she has less upside than New Year’s Eve but Princess Theorem has hit a new level this year. Henrietta Topham fell too far off the pace following a poor start before and rallied for third in an Indiana stakes last month, and her form two and three starts back would make her competitive. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.