Emory Hamilton’s homebred Pleasant Passage, runner-up in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) here last fall, heads a deep field of nine 3-year-old fillies entered Wednesday for Saturday’s 35^th running of the $400,000 Appalachian (G2) Presented by Japan Racing Association (G2) going a mile on the turf. 

The Appalachian will go as the afternoon’s sixth race with a 3:25 p.m. ET post time. 

Trained by Shug McGaughey, Pleasant Passage won her first two starts with the latter being the Miss Grillo (G2) before her Breeders’ Cup run. Tyler Gaffalione has the mount and will break from post position seven on Pleasant Passage, who is making her 2023 debut. 

Finishing third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf was Cairo Consort, who brings a recency edge over Pleasant Passage into the Appalachian. 

Now owned by Repole Stable and Town and Country Racing and trained by Todd Pletcher, Cairo Consort won the Ginger Brew (L) and Sweetest Chant (G3) at Gulfstream Park this winter and most recently was third in the Herecomesthebride (G3). Irad Ortiz Jr. has the mount and will break from post position three. 

Pletcher also will send out Don Alberto Stable’s Alpha Bella. Second in both the Sweetest Chant and the Florida Oaks (G3), Alpha Bella will be ridden by Joel Rosario and break from post position five. 

The field for the Appalachian, with riders and weights from the rail out, is: Beautifulnavigator (IRE) (James Graham, 118 pounds), Papilio (IRE) (Javier Castellano, 118), Cairo Consort (Ortiz Jr., 118), Heavenly Sunday (Florent Geroux, 118), Alpha Bella (Rosario, 118), Be Your Best (IRE) (Luis Saez, 118), Pleasant Passage (Gaffalione, 120), Sabalenka (Ricardo Santana Jr., 118), Well Into (Vincent Cheminaud, 118).