DeVaux brings talented Glory Me back from long layoff
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On Sunday, Cherie DeVaux might be basking in glory. Alternatively, she could be licking her wounds. It depends on how two fabulous horses she trains, Englishman and Golden Tempo, performed the day before in Breeders’ Cup races. Hopes are high for both – as they were for a filly named Glory Me.
Two Julys ago, Glory Me made a sharp run from a few lengths off the pace and won an Ellis Park maiden race by four lengths. Glory Me already had shown talent in the morning, and when she carried it into a race, DeVaux penciled Glory Me in for a start in the Grade 1 Spinaway at Saratoga. Glory Me did not make that race, nor did she make any race until the featured eighth on Sunday at Churchill Downs, where Glory Me faces eight first-level allowance foes in a six-furlong dirt dash restricted to older fillies and mares.
The ability Glory Me evinced early in her 2-year-old season has not left her at age 3, and at something like her morning-line odds of 4-1, Glory Me could look like value.
Favored at 2-1 on the line, Kaykay exits a fourth-start maiden win Oct. 10 at Keeneland, and with a lot of 1s in her past performances, a last-out win with a competitive speed figure, and Bob Baffert listed as trainer, Kaykay should indeed go favored. The filly, by Charlatan, likes to get on with her racing business – so much so that Kaykay has saved little energy for the end of her races. She has lost ground from the stretch call to the wire in all her starts – coughing up a stretch-call lead in her second and third outings – and may have to deal with one or all of the three horses drawn nearest the rail: That’s a Benjamin, Ready Comete, and Feminism.
In Total Awe won’t race anywhere near the lead, as was the case in her career debut June 28 at Churchill. Sent off at 44-1 – although the barn liked her enough that some fortunate souls cashed win bets at that price – In Total Awe got a great pace setup and made the most of it. Thirteen lengths behind the leader and racing 10th turning for home, In Total Awe stormed past everyone and won by 3 1/4 lengths. Stretched out to a mile in August at Ellis Park, In Total Awe endured a very difficult trip as the odds-on favorite and finished second, and did not seem to enjoy her two-turn debut in the Seneca Overnight on Sept. 19, losing by a dozen lengths. She’s back at six furlongs Sunday, and we will see to what extent her flashy win was related to the pace meltdown.
Glory Me can sit right off the leaders and get first run on In Total Awe, and, DeVaux said, has been training like a beast. The injury that initially took her out of training recurred, delaying her return to the races, but has not sapped her talent. Is she Englishman? No, but a day after the Breeders’ Cup, Glory Me can win the Sunday feature at Churchill.
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