Dry Powder has come close enough to winning a graded stakes during her 11-race career that trainer Chad Summers is convinced it will eventually happen. For now, though, it just may take one more race to get there.

The 4-year-old Kentucky-bred daughter of Gun Runner will look to use Sunday’s $100,000 Lady’s Secret Stakes at Monmouth Park as a stepping stone to her next graded stakes try when she takes on five other fillies and mares, 3 and up, in the mile and a sixteenth co-feature on the eight-race card.

The top two finishers in the Lady’s Secret Stakes receive free entry and start fees to the $500,000, Grade 2 Molly Pitcher Stakes on the July 18 NYRA Bets Haskell Stakes undercard.

The Sunday program also features the $100,000 Get Serious Stakes at five furlongs on the grass.

“With the money we spent on her as a yearling ($525,000) there are expectations of being a Saturday afternoon horse when you put on the black and gold (silks),” said Summers. “We feel she’s a graded stakes filly. Ultimately, that’s the goal for this year – to get that graded stakes win.

“Since she is doing so well we thought this was a race that makes sense since we’re looking at the Molly Pitcher on Haskell day.”

Dry Powder, who has earned $543,400 during her 11-race career, comes from the same connections that won this year’s Preakness Stakes with Napoleon Solo (since sold privately): Owner Al Gold (Gold Square), Summers and Paco Lopez, Monmouth Park’s leading rider.

Gold also won the 2022 Haskell Stakes with Cyberknife, who set a track record for the nine furlongs during his victory that day.

Dry Powder has tried five graded stakes during her career, missing by a neck of winning the Grade 1 Cotillion Stakes at Parx a year ago. She cruised to a 5¾-length win in an optional $125,000 claimer at Gulfstream Park in her second start this year, then failed to fire in the Grade 1 La Troienne Stakes at Churchill Downs after that.

Just eight days later she was wheeled back in the Grade 2 Ruffian Stakes during the Belmont-at-Aqueduct meet, finishing fourth.

“She is doing super,” said Summers. “We were excited when she won the race at Gulfstream the way she did. We took a swing in a Grade 1 after that. She just kind of got lost going into the first turn and ended up in no-man’s land. She ran a little flat.

“But when she came out of the race she didn’t even need any water afterward. So we did something a little unusual. We ran her back in eight days in the Ruffian. She ran good that day. The winner (Irish Maxima) was awesome. She ran everyone off their feet.”

Overall, Dry Powder has a 3-3-2 line from her 11 lifetime starts.

“She’s a 4-year-old. She should be in the prime of her career right now,” said Summers.

The same can be said for Summers, who earned his first Classic win in the Preakness in a training career that began in 2017. Summers said his life hasn’t really changed much since then, however.

“I got a new car,” he said.

He said he also finds himself taking more selfies by request.

“Bob Baffert asked me for a selfie after the Maryland Sales,” he said. “Winning a race like the Preakness and the amount of messages and congratulations you get is overwhelming.”

The field for the Lady’s Secret from the rail out: Dry Powder, Inefficiency, Equus, Like a Rolling Stone, Flowers for Me and Ivy Girl.

The Get Serious Stakes, for 3 year olds and up, attracted a field of seven (from the rail out): Algon, Souper Quest, Speed Figures, Nothing Better, Governor Sam, Coppola and Fore Harp