The Personal Ensign Stakes, named after one of the sport’s most celebrated female racehorses, has long been a fixture in the older female division and in recent years has become a powerful steppingstone to year-end championship honors.

The last three winners, Idiomatic (2023), Malathaat (2022), and Letruska (2021), went on to win the Eclipse Award as champion older dirt female, as did six of the last 11 winners of the Personal Ensign. Idiomatic will attempt to become the first repeat winner since Beautiful Pleasure in 1999-2000 in Friday’s race against four challengers.

Hall of Famer Personal Ensign closed out an unbeaten 13-for-13 career with a thrilling win over that year’s Kentucky Derby winner Winning Colors in the 1988 Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

1. Xigera (10-1 morning-line odds): She won five of her six races in 2023 but seems to have lost her top form in 2024. Nyquist filly is winless in three races this year and enters off an unplaced finish in a Grade 2 race June 29 at Churchill Downs. Difficult to see this year’s version of Xigera finding the winner’s circle here.

JOCKEY: Tyler Gaffalione; TRAINER: Phil Bauer

2. Soul of an Angel (5-1): Finished just a head behind Idiomatic in the Grade 3 Molly Pitcher Stakes July 20 at Monmouth Park, where she gave up the lead late in the 1 1/16-mile race. In career-best form, but she stretches out another sixteenth of a mile to a 1 1/8-mile distance at which she is unplaced in two tries. Could fill out the exacta or trifecta at a price.

JOCKEY: Irad Ortiz Jr.; TRAINER: Saffie Joseph Jr.

3. Raging Sea (9-2): Only defeat in her last five races came when fourth behind fellow Personal Ensign contenders Randomized and Idiomatic in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes Presented by Ford here at Saratoga Belmont Stakes weekend. Followed with a 2 ½-length win in a Grade 2 stakes and she has earned her career-best Equibase Speed Figure on this track and at this distance. A real threat to the top two just to her outside.

JOCKEY: Flavien Prat; TRAINER: Chad Brown

4. Idiomatic (6-5): Her only loss in last eight starts came by a head to the filly just to her outside, Randomized, in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps June 8 at this track and distance. She returned six weeks later with a hard-fought win by a head over Soul of an Angel in the Molly Pitcher Stakes. A win here depends on her regaining her best form from last year when she was running significantly faster races, nonetheless a tepid top pick to become the first repeat winner in nearly a quarter-century.

JOCKEY: Florent Geroux; TRAINER: Brad Cox

5. Randomized (8-5): Finished second by a half-length as a 3-year-old to Idiomatic in last year’s Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff, but Randomized got the better of her by a head June 8 when leading from start to finish in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps at this track and distance. Could be poised to take a step forward in her third start of the year. Like Idiomatic, a top player in the older dirt female division.

JOCKEY: Joel Rosario; TRAINER: Chad Brown

THE PICK: Idiomatic

LIVE LONGSHOT: Soul of an Angel

TRIFECTA: 4-5-3