La Troienne a starting point for Abel Tasman

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Six months since her last race, on the first Friday of November 2017, and one year since the biggest victory of her career, on the first Friday of May 2017, Abel Tasman returns to the scene of her Kentucky Oaks win to begin her 2018 campaign, one designed to get her to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on the first Friday of November 2018. For Abel Tasman, thank God it’s Friday.

She will be a heavy favorite against a handful of runners in the Grade 1, $350,000 La Troienne Stakes for older females, race 6 on Friday at Churchill Downs. Her win last year in the Oaks brought great joy to her trainer, Bob Baffert, as Abel Tasman is one of his barn favorites.

“She will steal your heart,” he said. “She’s so sweet.”

Baffert is hoping Abel Tasman begins a sweet weekend for him here, what with the longshot Rayya in the Kentucky Oaks later in the day and favored Justify as well as Solomini in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday.

“We’ve been aiming for this for a long time,” Baffert said. “She’s training well, and we know she likes Churchill.”

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That’s one of the reasons this race was chosen as a starting point for Abel Tasman’s 4-year-old campaign. The Breeders’ Cup will be held here this fall, so the 1 1/16-mile La Troienne serves as one bookend of her season.

Last year’s campaign brought Abel Tasman an Eclipse Award as the nation’s best 3-year-old filly. In addition to the Kentucky Oaks, she also won the Acorn and Coaching Club American Oaks and completed her year with a solid second-place finish behind the mare Forever Unbridled in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar.

After that race, “we turned her out for a month, a month and a half,” Baffert said, as he was in no hurry to bring her back too soon.

“She’s going to have a second-half campaign,” he said earlier this year.

“This is a stepping-stone,” Baffert said this week, “but we have her ready for this.”

Abel Tasman won the Kentucky Oaks as a 9-1 shot last year. She didn’t get away from the gate well and was last in the 14-horse field before rallying for the victory.

“That was such an exciting Oaks,” said Baffert, who has won the Oaks three times. “There’s nothing like winning when it’s not expected.”

On Friday, victory will be expected. On form, Abel Tasman towers over her seven rivals, and she likely will face even fewer. Trainer Todd Pletcher entered Ivy Bell in the Grade 1 Humana Distaff going seven furlongs on Saturday and said that was her likely spot this weekend.

The likely second choice is Martini Glass, the former claimer who has become a bona-fide graded stakes performer. She has won three of her last five starts, including her last pair, the Royal Delta at Gulfstream and the Azeri at Oaklawn Park. Her last race was March 17. Her trainer, Keith Nations, said the prestigious Apple Blossom on April 13 at Oaklawn was skipped by design so she would be fresh for the La Troienne.

“We thought coming back in the Apple Blossom was too quick, and after she got back to Tampa,” Nations said, referring to where he is based in the winter, “she had lost some weight. She had shipped to Gulfstream three times, ran at Sam Houston, went to Oaklawn and back. My gut feeling was to skip the Apple Blossom and go for the La Troienne.”

Streamline (fourth), Tiger Moth (fifth), and Farrell (seventh) all exit the Apple Blossom, which was run on a track listed as good-sealed. There is the likelihood of rain here Friday, which could compromise their chances and is unlikely to impact Abel Tasman, as she won the Kentucky Oaks on an off track.

Salty was a close fifth in the seven-furlong Madison at Keeneland last time out.

Apologynotaccepted was second in the Doubledogdare at Keeneland and is being wheeled back in two weeks.