Stardom Bound, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2008, completed her major work for Saturday’s $400,000 Ashland Stakes (G1) by working six furlongs in 1:12.60 on a blustery Sunday morning at Keeneland.

With regular work rider Goncalino Almeida up and trainer Rick Dutrow looking on from the grandstand, Stardom Bound came on the track at 7:15.

With light rain falling and racing into a strong headwind down the backstretch, Stardom Bound reeled off fractions of :25, :37, :48.40 and 1:01 with a gallop out time for seven furlongs of 1:25.80 according to Keeneland clockers.

Dutrow gave the work a thumbs up back at Barn 28 before heading to the airport for a flight to South Florida.

"The boy said she went well and that she likes this track, which is going to help us," Dutrow said. "The race is coming up tough and she is going to have to show up."

Owned by IEAH Stables, Paul Poma Jr., Michael Dubb and Golden Goose Ent., LLC, Stardom Bound will be seeking her sixth consecutive Grade 1 victory in the Ashland. Winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies last October to lock up divisional honors, Stardom Bound has won the Las Virgenes and Santa Anita Oaks to kick off 2009.

Entries for the Ashland, to be run at a mile and a sixteenth, will be taken Wednesday.

Stardom Bound had worked five furlongs at Keeneland on March 22 with Almeida coming in for the work from California.

"It was my first time at Keeneland and first time back in Kentucky since the Derby in 1995," said Almeida, who rode Jumron to a fourth-place finish behind Thunder Gulch that year. "It has been a long time."

Almeida, who works for trainer Bobby Frankel, will remain at Keeneland through the Spring Meet that kicks off Friday and runs through April 24.

On Saturday, Dutrow’s Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G1) hopeful Patena worked a half-mile in :51.80.

"He worked well, and if he keeps training like he has the plan is to run in the Blue Grass," Dutrow said.

Owned by IEAH Stables, Patena finished eighth in his most recent start, the Louisiana Derby (G2) on March 14 at Fair Grounds. The Louisiana Derby was run over a sloppy track, the first race for Patena on an off track.

"I’m just throwing that race out because of the slop," Dutrow said.

MILLER HOPING FOR MORE BLUE GRASS MAGIC

Trainer Darrin Miller said that the Toyota Blue Grass remains a possibility for Silverton Hill, LLC’s Cliffy’s Future, winner of the Rushaway Stakes at Turfway Park on March 21 in his most recent start.

"I looked at the rundown of possibles the other day and it (the Blue Grass) looks viable," Miller said. "He will have only one work, probably in a week or week and a half."

Miller saddled Silverton Hill’s Dominican to a narrow victory in the 2007 Blue Grass Stakes, a triumph that came on the heels of a victory in the Rushaway.

A private purchase by Silverton Hill, Cliffy’s Future has run twice for Miller. Trained last fall by Todd Pletcher, Cliffy’s Future has run once at Keeneland, finishing third behind Hold Me Back, another Blue Grass possibility, in a mile and one-sixteenth allowance race.

DREAM EMPRESS WORKS FOR ASHLAND

Livin the Dream Racing, LLC’s Dream Empress tuned up for an expected run in the Ashland Stakes by working five furlongs in 1:02.60 on Saturday morning for trainer Ken McPeek.

Dream Empress made her Polytrack debut at Keeneland last fall in stylish fashion by winning the Darley Alcibiades (G1) by 4 ¼ lengths.