Belmont Park: Eblouissante nears local appearance

ELMONT, N.Y. - Zenyatta’s undefeated baby sister Eblouissante moved another step closer to her much-anticipated local debut after breezing five furlongs in 1:01.43 and galloping out six furlongs in 1:14.12 here at Belmont Park on Saturday.

Eblouissante opened her career with two popular victories, the first a 4 1/4-length maiden win at Hollywood Park last November, the second a 1 1/4-length entry-level allowance race in her only 4-year-old appearance on Jan. 17 at Santa Anita. Both victories came at 1 1/16 miles.

Trainer John Shirreffs, who shipped the majority of his stable from Southern California to New York earlier this spring, said he has nothing definite picked out for Eblouissante’s much anticipated local debut.

“It’s hard to say right now exactly what race we’re pointing to,” Shirreffs said. “We lost quite a bit of time with her, but she worked well before she left California, had some delays here, and worked really good again on Saturday. So I think we’re on the right track. That was her first five-furlong work in six weeks, so it would be tough to think about running her any time soon. We’ll just see how things come up.”