Golden Mischief looking to enhance value in Winning Colors
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – One triple-digit Beyer Speed Figure does not a superstar make, but Brad Cox sure liked what he saw when Golden Mischief earned a 101 Beyer last month in an Oaklawn Park allowance romp.
Having trained right along in the seven-plus weeks since that breakthrough triumph, Golden Mischief figures to be a short price Saturday when she faces five other filly-and-mare sprinters in the Grade 3, $100,000 Winning Colors at Churchill Downs.
“She’s been doing very well since we got here from Oaklawn,” said Cox. “This looks like a good spot for her to get some graded black type.”
Golden Mischief will have Florent Geroux aboard when she breaks from post 2 in the six-furlong Winning Colors. Purchased at auction last November by Juddmonte Farms, the daughter of Into Mischief subsequently was sent to Cox with the hope of upgrading her pedigree page during her 4-year-old campaign.
Already a multiple ungraded stakes winner for prior connections, Golden Mischief certainly is showing signs of taking her game to the next level, especially off that eye-catching April 4 win. Moreover, this already has been a memorable month at Churchill for Cox and Geroux, as they teamed to win the May 4 Kentucky Oaks with Monomoy Girl.
“You always want to try to keep that kind of momentum going,” said Cox.
The chief threats to Golden Mischief in this 15th running of the Winning Colors are Miss Kentucky (post 5, Brian Hernandez Jr.) and Treble (post 4, Ricardo Santana Jr.), the one-two finishers in an allowance race on opening night (April 28) of the 38-day spring meet. Rounding out the lineup are Brave Daisey (post 1, Rogelio Miranda), Pinch Hit (post 3, Robby Albarado), and Golden Domer (post 6, Corey Lanerie).
The Winning Colors, named for the third and most recent filly to win the Kentucky Derby, in 1988, is the 10th of 11 races on a card that starts at 12:45 p.m. Eastern, with the feature going at 5:26. It’ll come much later in the day than the secondary feature, the $70,000 Keertana (race 3, 1:43), which also figures to have a prohibitive favorite breaking from post 2 in a short field of fillies and mares.
Daring Duchess, coming out of considerably stronger races than her six opponents, figures to be an odds-on choice in this 1 1/2-mile turf race with Lanerie riding for owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey and trainer Mike Maker.
“You hope it ends up looking as good on the racetrack as it does on paper,” Maker.
Indeed, Daring Duchess not only appears to be the class of the field but also the controlling speed. A three-length winner of the 2017 Keertana as an even-money choice, she exits a rugged renewal of the Grade 3 Bewitch at Keeneland following a productive winter at Gulfstream Park.
This is the sixth running of the Keertana, which is named in honor of the Barbara Hunter homebred who earned more than $1 million on the racetrack and whose first foal, Ticonderoga, is a graded stakes winner.
◗ The lone Monday card of the year at Churchill will be held on this extended weekend because of the Memorial Day holiday, with first post set for 12:45 p.m. The Winning Colors and Keertana are the only stakes here this weekend.
