A field of 11 promising sophomore fillies is set to dash 5 ½ furlongs on the turf in Sunday’s $100,000 Stormy Blues Stakes at Laurel Park, and one filly getting a long look from the public will be Roja.

Owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Madaket Stables, Roja burst onto the turf scene with a dazzling local debut on May 25, storming home along the rail to win by 4 ¼ lengths under confident handling. Trained by Graham Motion, the daughter of Karakontie gave every impression that she has found her preferred footing.

“I thought she was very impressive the other day,” said Motion. “It’s a big step from a maiden to a stake, but there aren’t that many opportunities for 3-year-old fillies to run with their own kind.”

A $70,000 auction purchase, Roja hadn’t overly impressed Motion in her early training. It wasn’t until a sharp gate work at Palm Meadows Feb. 27 that Motion began to see her potential.

“She really didn’t show me very much until she worked from the gate at Palm Meadows,” Motion admitted. “I don’t know if it was the gate or the dirt, but I thought her work was very impressive, and that was why we ran her on the dirt at Tampa, although she’s completely bred for the grass.”

After a dead-heat third in her debut and a middling effort over a wet Keeneland strip, a surface switch proved to be exactly what the filly needed.

“She ran very competitively [in her debut],” said Motion. “The last time Irad [Ortiz] rode her at Keeneland, he [told me] this filly needs the grass. And he was right. And that’s why he’s the leading rider in the country.”

Roja will face a full and evenly matched field on Sunday. Among her challengers is Make Haste, now trained by Miguel Clement following the recent passing of his father Christophe, who guided the filly to a Gulfstream allowance win in April. Re-routed from a washed-off turf stakes at Saratoga, she brings strong tactical speed.

“She’s doing very well,” Clement said. “She has tactical speed. She doesn’t have to be on the front.”

Impulse Buy, a stakes winner at Churchill last fall for trainer Rodolphe Brisset, makes her turf debut after a wide trip in the Grade 2 Eight Belles.

“She’s very talented,” said Brisset. “I blame me more than anything. Perhaps we should have waited for the Miss Preakness.”

Repole Stable’s Slightly Busy enters off a sharp allowance win in New York for trainer Amelia Green, who knew the filly well from her time as an assistant with Todd Pletcher.

“She’s always a very good workhorse. She’ll outbreeze everything you put her with,” Green said. “She’s built like a little sprinter.”

Trainer Jose Corrales brings a pair of stakes-winning fillies in Safe Trust and Shkhara Fire, both making their turf debuts. “For me, she’s good on everything,” Corrales said of Safe Trust. “Whatever I throw at her, she runs.”

Also entered are Biscuitwiththeboss, a turf winner and full sister to The Very One winner Bosserati; Viscious Gossip, undefeated in two starts; and dirt stakes-placed runners Strong Like Sara and Not Too Late.

While many fillies bring credentials, it’s Roja who holds the most intrigue as she makes her second grass start, this time stepping up to stakes company.

“This is what she wanted,” Motion said after her grass bow.

Now he adds, “Off of that race, she warrants a shot. I thought she beat a decent group.”