Correas reaches back home for another potential star in Joy Epifora

Argentine import Dona Bruja came within a half-length of winning the Grade 1 Beverly D. Stakes in 2017 and was retired after her 2018 campaign. Her trainer, Ignacio Correas, hopes he has another horse to follow in her hoofprints.

Joy Epifora makes her North American debut in the featured ninth race Sunday at Churchill Downs after racing eight times, all during 2019, in Argentina. Correas himself is an Argentine import, having grown up there in a horse family before traveling to Europe to learn other perspectives on the training craft. Dona Bruja rates at or very near the top of the horses he has trained in the U.S., and Correas has seen enough – both in her races and recent training – to afford him hope Joy Epifora could ascend to a similar level.

:: To stay up to date, follow us on: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

“She works like she’s a very good horse in the mornings. She has a good head on her – everything you want on a horse,” Correas said.

Joy Epifora is one of 12 fillies and mares entered in a one-mile grass race for third-level allowance horses or $80,000 claimers. By the Distorted Humor sire Fortify, Joy Epifora is a Group 1 winner on dirt and Group 1-placed on grass. Correas has confidence she can perform at or near her best on either surface, though he suspects she might slightly favor dirt.

“I didn’t want to run her in a stakes race right away. I wanted to build her, and she has this condition, so I went with this race,” he said. “I think she’s as ready as she could be with me; I don’t squeeze them hard. I think she can win first time.”

Declan Cannon, often Dona Bruja’s rider, has the mount on Joy Epifora, who breaks from post 4 while making her first start since Dec. 8.

Chad Brown-trained Tapit Today is listed as the 8-5 morning-line favorite as she drops back into allowance competition following a third-place finish behind Starship Jubilee and the Brown-trained Magic Star in the Grade 3 Suwannee River more than four months ago at Gulfstream. Several entrants come out of a May 22 Churchill race at the same class level and distance, but the new players, Tapit Today and Joy Epifora, look more interesting.

◗ Race 8 is a second-level, dirt-sprint allowance with a $62,500 claiming option that drew nine entrants, five of whom are entered to be claimed. Among that latter group is C Z Rocket, who gets a bump from a $50,000 claiming win off a Peter Miller claim to this higher level, a seemingly positive sign. Three-year-old Shashashakemeup struggled in route races over the winter in New Orleans but won at nearly 50-1 when switched back to a dirt sprint April 5 at Oaklawn, his most recent start. He was a sharp debut winner last fall in his only previous start and gets five pounds from his older rivals Sunday.