Brean Can may have found right spot

Brean Can will be looking for her first win of the young Indiana racing season Friday night when she faces nine other fillies and mares in the $75,000 Shelby County Stakes at Indiana Downs.

Trained by Mike Nance, Brean Can has been out twice this year. On April 19, she set a pressured pace for a half-mile before tiring to finish next-to-last in a six-furlong optional $40,000 claimer. In her most recent out May 14, she again was pressing a quick pace, but this time gave way to finish fourth, beaten 3 3/4 lengths. She earned a Beyer of 68 in that six-furlong optional claimer, five points higher than she posted when she was third, beaten a half-length, in last year's Shelby County.

Brean Can will be facing easier company Friday than in either of her other starts this year.

The Shelby County is for fillies and mares who were sired by registered sires, so it the more restrictive than most Indiana-registered races in which only the dam most be registered in Indiana.

Ms. Cat Princess is the track's morning-line favorite and has done almost everything asked of her. A 3-year-old filly trained by Tom Amoss, Ms. Cat Princess is 3 for 4 lifetime and has started all four times in Indiana. She won her maiden and then the $73,000 Indiana Stallion at Hoosier Park last season. This year, she has run in a pair of third-level allowances restricted to Indiana-breds, finishing second April 23 before winning May 5 by 3 3/4 lengths, earned a modest 40 Beyer.

* Trainer Terry Phillips has only a four-horse stable but has already scored his first win in his short training career.

Phillips, 25, grew up around horses and was a trail guide on horseback while in college in his hometown of Columbus, Ind.

"A friend of mine talked me into coming to the track and I loved it. Training horses just seemed the next logical step to me," Phillips said.

Phillips began working for some of the smaller trainers in Indiana, learning all he could about the game.

Phillips scored his first win with his own horse, Clear Reflection, on April 23.

"I bought him at the paddock sale at Indiana for $600," Phillips said.

Although 0 for 14 previously, the 4-year-old Clear Reflection won the first time Phillips saddled him.

The three other horses in Phillips's care are owned by Mike Konger's Pine Tree Stable.

"I was fortunate enough to meet Mike Konger and I saw him at Keeneland last year," Phillips said. "He told me if I got my license to give him a call He was nice enough to send me a few."