Parx: Disco Barbie drops in class, adds blinkers

HoofprintsInc.com

Disco Barbie, winning her maiden at Delaware Park last September, drops out of a stakes and adds blinkers for Monday's allowance feature at Parx.

Based on her two most recent workouts, Disco Barbie has discovered some early zip, thanks to the addition of blinkers. After racing far back early as the beaten favorite in two stakes to close out her 2-year-old campaign, Disco Barbie figures to be more prominent early when she launches her 3-year-old season in Monday’s $47,000 sprint feature at Parx Racing.

The first-level allowance, which will be contested at six furlongs, drew a field of six 3-year-old fillies, including Kelwynne, whose lone defeat in three career starts came when she was second in a stakes last fall.

Disco Barbie, an $80,000 purchase as a yearling at the Fasig-Tipton July sale in Kentucky, rallied from eighth to finish third as the 7-5 favorite in the six-furlong Xtra Heat at Delaware Park in late October and came from last of 10 to wind up third again as the 9-5 public choice in the seven-furlong Gin Talking at Laurel Park about a month later.

Trainer Tony Dutrow has given Disco Barbie six workouts at Parx since mid-December, but the last two have been eye-catching. Presumably equipped with the blinkers she will wear in a race for the first time on Monday, Disco Barbie was the second fastest of 30 horses who breezed four furlongs on Jan. 27 with a time of 49 seconds. She came back on Feb. 4 to post a bullet half-mile work in 48.80 seconds.

Over the past two years, Dutrow shows an 11-for-30 record (34 percent) with female sprinters returning following a break of 61 to 180 days.

The Pennsylvania-bred Kelwynne appears to be the biggest obstacle to Disco Barbie’s bid to clear her first allowance condition. A three-length winner in her career debut against open company at Parx last October, Kelwynne followed up by finishing a close second as the odds-on favorite in the restricted Blue Mountain at Penn National. She returned two months later to get up by a neck facing statebreds in an allowance.

Kelwynne is not only in sharp form, but comes from solid connections and a good pedigree. Her owner, Blue Devil Racing Stable, is 10 for 28 (36 percent) with trainer Steve Klesaris since 20011. She is a half-sister to Quantum Miss, whose 5-for-8 career record included four stakes wins, highlighted by the Grade 3 Cicada in 2011. That same year, Kelwynne sold for $100,000 as the most expensive of 22 offspring of Yes It’s True purchased at the Keeneland September yearling auction.