All Hail Da ‘Queen’: 3YO Filly Test Brings Out The Best On Turf
Wanna be Queen For A Day? Hey, who doesn’t.
Really. Who wouldn’t want the moniker Queen For A Day? She was a talented mare on the turf, a three-time stakes winner who excelled going long on the green, her specialty laying in her preference at distances between nine and eleven furlongs. She didn’t win any major stakes of note, but she was a warrior princess on the track, and carried that kind of distinction into the breeding shed. As for right now, her offspring has a combined lifetime record of 16 wins in 55 starts, and one of her kids is stakes-placed, and all four of them are technically still active (though the oldest hasn’t raced in three years and a month, opting for a life of reclusiveness). The Hilton family has no flies on her, but I digress.
To commemorate this family’s matriarch—the equine one, not the human, though the mistake is an easy one to make—Arkansas has offered a solid feature this week. The $65,000 Queen For A Day Challenge is a mile-and-a-sixteenth over the firm going on a mild afternoon not far removed from little rocks and hot springs. Seven three-year-old fillies will be lining up for a chance to assert themselves in the sophomore division early in the campaign. Let’s have a look-see, if that’s alright with you.
Johanna [Unbridled’s Song-Cemetary Winter, by A.P. Indy, trained by martialis] has the inside post, and the name of her game is consistency. She’s hit the board in five of six, but has nothing but paychecks in her career to date. She’s the main bread-winning descendant of Cemetary Winter, a well-bred filly who never got her act together in two starts. For all the discussion of just what a mare passes on to her foals of her on-track performance, this maiden, winless broodmare has brought out a stakes-placed mare as well as this graded winner. (And her two-year-old half-sister, Imperator, by Seeking The Gold, looks to have as much potential as any others in her immediate family.) The dirt debut flopped, but the grass debut returned immediate dividends, with a maiden win, and in all she won the Grade III Moony and placed in a couple other stakes at 2. Her three-year-old season started off with a second in an allowance, her first race in almost six months, but shaking off the rust shouldn’t be too hard second off the rest. The best race of her life was the off-the-pace triumph in the Moony on a wet course, but she usually heads to the front to skulk about, and there’s little indication that’s going to change. The pedigree doesn’t hint of trouble, off-hand, with the distance, but if she’s rounding back into shape, this listed event could hold the clues to her future against better competition. I like the second-off-layoff angle, but her lack of top-class route experience raises questions about being able to compete against higher-ranked foes.
Make Mine Silver [Silver Deputy x Unbridled’s Song, trained by kingab] has a lot of positive attributes to take note of. She’s ranked #84 in this classic turf division of this generation, and rising. She’s got wins on both surfaces. She’s got a talented trainer who is for the most part liked around the Sim. And she’s won from well off the pace as well as on the lead. What’s not to like, really? Well, her speed figures are alright, but don’t stand out so much against a filly who’s broken 90 (yet to come here). Her stakes ability has yet to produce a win, instead only producing a pair of thirds in two tries. And her ’07 debut wasn’t quite so heartening, as she was favored in a four-horse field but only managed one of her thirds in stakes company. But she is 1-for-1 at the distance, is a bit more work-ready than others in the field who are coming off some extended rest, and she gets the services of the circuit’s top rider. She’ll quite possibly benefit from the number of fillies who like to be on the front end in their races challenging for the lead here, as her late run should come into play down the stretch. This is a pretty good filly who hasn’t quite busted through into exceptional territory yet, but could benefit from front-end fireworks in a spot without a definitive standout.
Infinite Tuskers [Elusive Quality-Black Spawn Den, by Sky Classic, trained by mardigras] is the first foal from a stakes-winning, graded-placed mare whose best work came on the dirt. But Elusive Quality brings versatility to the table (see Smarty Jones) and so with a pedigree containing the usual array of turf influences, it should come as little surprise this filly has found a home on the lawn. Her maiden win was a restricted stakes win for a residency, and she’s found her fortunes taking an upturn as she’s stretched out in distance. She likes the lead, and will compete hard for it, but can stay a distance of ground as she matures. Still, her speed figures are rather suspect against some solid burgeoning contenders, and in an open-company stakes as this is, an 80 is good, but hardly outstanding. And her speed has limits; nine furlongs in her season debut last time was beyond her scope, and though eight-and-a-half is much better (she’s unbeaten at the distance), with as much speed as she’ll be trying to compete with, might she get burned up long before it’s time for a stretch drive? Remember, for all his studly versatility, E.Q. himself was at his core only a miler on turf (and a sprinter on dirt). And those speed figures are going to have to get better here.
Galileo’s Dancer [Galileo(IRE)-Whisper Of Night, by Langfuhr, trained by sledge4] is an Irish-bred filly who comes into this race on a roll of sorts. After three stakes wins (one of those in restricted company) at 2, her three-year-old debut off of a six-week break was actually a very solid performance, when she was third in the Grade III Broadside in Texas. It was a fine effort, as she sat in mid-pack and made a mild bid late to be beaten only two lengths. And the 89 speed figure is second-best among these; indeed, next to Johanna, she’s the only filly here to have been without shouting distance of a graded win this early in her career. It’s also the second-best number in the field, and the second-best last-time-out number in the field. Her stalking style, laying more in wait, should be a blessing in disguise, with three or four expected to want a share of the pace-setting chores here. Where a red flag comes up is the fact that while she’s a perfect 1-for-1 at the distance, but that race came against restricted-stakes opposition, and even though a residency’s race might be a tough out for anyone and feature some sturdy contenders, sometimes such a race falls short in preparing for the harsher realities in open company. In other words, in a solid open stakes field, there’s a lingering question about getting the distance here until she actually does so. Even so, the last race was good enough to place her square in the middle of consideration for the win, and on class she’s near the top of the page.
Sidetrack [War Chant x Nijinsky II, trained by blackswan] cannot be faulted on pedigree, nor can she be faulted on recent form (her last-out speed figure is almost as good as Galileo’s Dancer). What can we fault her on, though? Well, her closing run is suited more for longer distances, as she always seems to fall a little short when charging from the back of the lead pack. There’s enough pace to set up a late dash, though, which in any event plays to her main strength. This will be the farthest she has run, although she does own a win at a mile, and she’s not been quite as successful trying out stakes company, in spite of her second two back sprinting in a Louisiana sprint on the lawn. These are two matters she’ll need to address in this spot, but if she maintains closer contact to the field in making a mad dash down the lane late, she could be a whirling dervish in the final quarter-mile. Toss out that last-out 87, although honestly earned, and you have a filly whose numbers fall to the bottom of the field, and the lingering perception is that a higher-profile win is the only thing that can raise her profile.
Mariachi Static [Crafty Prospector-Hillbilly Heaven, by Forestry, trained by slowjet2] has the most experience in the field, with ten career starts. Exactly none of those races have come on the grass. So you might imagine examining her form might be a speculative venture. And you would be right. The pedigree has not a whole lot of good grass form on top, but on the bottom, with Forestry as the DS and Northern Afleet (the DDS) having a dam-sire of Nureyev, there’s some skills to be had running on the green stuff. Routing on it, though, is not so certain. In her history, she’s 0-for-1 at a mile, and has never gone farther. That one mile race, in her season’s debut, was an even fifth in an allowance. Her speed figures have only slightly bumped up against 80, in a sprint, her stakes form has earned her a pair of thirds at the end of 2006 but little in the way of other success. My instinct is to believe that the idea behind entering her is more as a training tool instead of a premonition of turf success down the road. Her usual running style is to come from off-the pace, but not through losing contact with the field, but exactly how this is going to translate to her turf debut is anyone’s guess. I wouldn’t expect a win out of this, particularly with some heavy hitters present, but with the grass influences on his dam’s side of the pedigree, it shouldn’t be a poor race by any means. And as a training tool, a surface switch can give a horse a buzz for a few starts after returning to the preferred surface.
Maspero [Zabeel(NZ)-Danehill Dancer, by Danehill, trained by ausracing] is a New Zealand-bred filly whose last race hints as some great potential at this level in this division. She earned a 90 last time when she captured a North Carolina stakes in just her fourth start, and that was win #3 on her career. That’s the best last-out number in the field, and the best speed figure under any circumstance that anyone here has ever run. If her pedigree does suggest that there are some distance limitations inside her—which it does—she certainly is unaware of it, as each of her four starts have shown grace and maturity. The dam, not to be confused with the game sire, was a graded-stakes winner who specialized in sprints, and even as that might be her eventual long-term specialty, the win going a mile last out showed some heart. As the post-time favorite, she has earned her stripes. But there’s the matter of having just four starts versus a field of, relatively speaking, wily veterans. Plus, as impressive as the last win was on the speed figure scale, both of her last two starts came against four-horse fields. She’s met and done well with the foes she’s had, but this field is deeper in talent and richer in potential than her last two outings would suggest. The best horse she’s faced by far is Hammerjack, who not only is ranked higher than anyone in this field, she also beat her soundly two back in her only loss, and it wasn’t all that close. This is a field of aspiring Hammerjacks, and there’s a serious class test she’ll need to overcome, in addition to an outside post and a stalking style that has a lot of company here.
My selections:
1. Johanna
2. Galileo’s Dancer
3. Maspero
4. Make Mine Silver
5. Sidetrack
Good luck to all, and happy racing.