Churchill Downs: Ravi's Song seeks change of fortune in Mint Julep

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Ravi’s Song seems deserving of a little luck coming into Saturday night's Grade 3, $100,000 Mine Julep Handicap at Churchill Downs. After winning a pair of stakes last year at Fair Grounds, she has gone nearly 15 months without a victory, while experiencing a number of close second-place finishes.

Two such losses came on the same Churchill Downs turf course over which she will race Saturday, first in last June’s Mint Julep, when she fell a neck short of My Baby Baby, and later when she was a half-length behind Deluxe in Grade 3 Cardinal last November.

Since the Cardinal, she ran second to Joyful Victory in the Tiffany Lass Stakes, then was last of five in the Grade 3 Azeri at Oaklawn, and a close fourth on turf at Keeneland on April 11 in a stakes-quality allowance behind Marketing Mix, Inglorious, and Hungry Island.

One change in the Mint Julep: She will be racing in foal. Bowman said she was bred to Distorted Humor after her last start, and plans call for her to run until likely September during the early part of her pregnancy.

Ravi’s Song, a 6-year-old Unbridled’s Song mare owned by breeder Yoshio Fujita, did miss a little training as a result of time away for two coverings, Bowman said. Miguel Mena rides.

Other logical contenders in the Mint Julep include Bizzy Caroline, last year’s Regret winner who was third in her seasonal bow in an allowance prep at Keeneland on April 26; Artemus Kitten, who upset multiple graded stakes winner Upperline two starts ago on grass at Fair Grounds; and Hard Seven, a graded-placed filly with the speed to be prominent in a relatively paceless affair.

Heavenly Landing, Snow Top Mountain, and Warm Hugs complete the field.