Kentucky Derby: Rebel winner Confidence Game has John Shirreffs connection

While John Shirreffs trains West Coast-based Kentucky Derby prospect Skinner, he is intimately familiar with the dam of an emerging Derby prospect in the Midwest. Shirreffs trained Eblouissante, dam of Rebel Stakes winner Confidence Game. Eblouissante was a younger sibling to the mighty Zenyatta.

“I do remember Eblouissante, very well,” Shirreffs said, reciting her race record from memory. “Eblouissante won two races, she broke her maiden and won an allowance, and then I ran her at Saratoga.”

Eblouissante was the second favorite in the 2013 Shuvee Handicap at Saratoga, where it all went wrong for her.

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“At Saratoga, she flipped in the gate,” Shirreffs said. “Her mouth was all bloody, her hock was scraped up. That changed everything. After that, she was never the same.”

Eblouissante finished last in the Shuvee, raced four times afterward, lost her final three starts by double digits, and was retired. Confidence Game is the fourth foal from Eblouissante and her first stakes winner.

Saturday at Santa Anita, Shirreffs starts Skinner in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes. He was Grade 1-placed as a juvenile and enters off a dominating comeback maiden victory.

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