Distaff Turf Mile start of big things for In Italian, Brown hopes

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – There were nine graded stakes for turf fillies and mares run east of the Mississippi through April. Chad Brown’s barn sent out the winners of six of those. Brown runs one of those winners in In Italian in Saturday’s Grade 2, $500,000 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile. Brown also unveils a new import to the division in Speak of the Devil.

The Distaff Mile, slotted as the fifth race, kicks off a run of seven consecutive undercard stakes leading up to the Kentucky Derby on Saturday.

The race also kicks off what Brown hopes will be a big season for In Italian, a 4-year-old Dubawi filly who has won 3 of 4 lifetime starts. In her stakes debut, and second start off a layoff, she led throughout to win the Grade 3 Honey Fox Stakes on March 5 at Gulfstream. She has not raced since that outing, two months ago.

“We rested her for this race,” Brown said. “She had a nice win last time, and we let her catch her breath. We have a big campaign in mind with her this summer, so I didn’t want to race her too much over the winter. . . . I think it’s a really good race position on the whole schedule for the year.”

In Italian is drawn in post 7 in this field of eight, with Irad Ortiz Jr. in the irons. Key to her trip on the front end will be the actions of Lady Speightspeare, just inside her in post 6 under Luis Saez. Lady Speightspeare, a Grade 1 winner and Canadian champion, wears a calming blanket in the starting gate, which is designed to stay behind when she breaks. Despite having been successfully soothed by that equipment in the past, she lunged at the start of the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley Stakes last month at Keeneland, which left her trailing early, far from her usual running style. She recovered to finish third to the Brown duo of Regal Glory and Shantisara.

“She had been absolutely golden with the blanket on – until” then, trainer Roger Attfield said. “The blanket came off, but she reared up with the blanket on. The blanket had kept her from rearing in her other races. Why, I don’t know. She schools every week with it on. The rearing certainly did not help her chances, but we are pleased she got up to be third.”

Brown’s new player for the Distaff Mile is Speak of the Devil, a 5-year-old Wootton Basset mare imported from her native France at the end of last season. Peter Brant owns In Italian and Speak of the Devil.

“We gave her all winter to acclimate and get over the long campaign from last year,” Brown said. “I’ve been very pleased, particularly the last month, month and a half. She’s really stepped forward.”

A multiple Group 1-placed mare, Speak of the Devil won three listed stakes in France last year. All those wins came on courses listed heavy or soft. The condition of the Churchill Downs turf, a course that debuted last week, could be key Saturday as rain was expected Thursday and Friday.

Wakanaka, a rallying second to In Italian in the Honey Fox in just her second start in the United States, also could relish some cut in the ground. Trained now by Bill Mott, she won last year’s Italian 1000 Guineas on soft turf.

Abscond has long been trying to recapture the form she showed as a Grade 1-winning juvenile in Canada. She adds blinkers Saturday for trainer Eddie Kenneally in an effort to keep her more involved.

She Can’t Sing is coming off consecutive Fair Grounds wins in the Albert M. Stall Memorial and Tom Benson Memorial. Completing the field are Grade 3-placed stakes winner Flower Point, third in the Plenty of Grace in her 2022 debut; and Mona Stella, third in the restricted Pleasant Acres Stallions Distaff Turf. She is cross-entered in the Grade 3 Modesty on Friday.