Easy winner Exclusive Wildcat makes 2nd start

The fourth race on Nov. 18 at Churchill Downs shaped up as the kind of race that typified the fall meet there. It drew a field of 12 well-bred, promising 2-year-old fillies, and after a scan of the past performances, it was quite apparent that a horse was going to have to run big to win.

Exclusive Wildcat did more than that. Making her career debut for owners John Eaton and Steve Laymon and trainer Greg Foley, she broke sharply to grab a measured lead, then just kept motoring to win by six lengths, making a shambles of what had looked like a highly competitive maiden special weight race.

"It looked like there were a couple of real decent fillies in against us that day, but she just demolished that field," said Foley. "All the way up to that race she'd worked liked a good filly, and she sure ran like it."

Nearly six weeks later, Exclusive Wildcat will make an eagerly awaited return to action when she is part of a full field Monday in the $50,000 Gowell Stakes at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.

Exclusive Wildcat, with leading jockey Jesus Castanon to ride, will break from post 3 in the six-furlong Gowell, the ninth of 10 Monday races. She figures to receive plenty of backing despite facing more experienced - and marginally more accomplished - fillies such as Mighty Martha, Taylor Madison, Spotless Mind, and High Heritage, all two-time winners.

Foley, the leading trainer at the 2005 winter-spring meet at Turfway by a big margin, figures as a major force again this winter with a sizable stable split between Turfway and the Trackside training center in Louisville. He recently shipped Exclusive Wildcat from Louisville to the Turfway string, which is overseen by Terry Smith.

Thursday, Exclusive Wildcat had her first work over the Polytrack surface at Turfway, going a half-mile in a bullet 49.40 seconds. "She came out of her first race in good shape, and she's trained just like she did before," said Foley. "We're looking forward to seeing her run again."

The Gowell is named for the winner of the first Inaugural Stakes at Old Latonia in 1913. Last year's winner was Angel Trumpet, ridden by Rafael Bejarano and trained by Bernie Flint.

Monday's card is the first of eight in a row (through Jan. 2). First post is 1:10 p.m. Eastern.