Lady Ilze shortens up, needs better break
?q=100)
Breaking from post 12 in a second-level turf allowance race April 10 at Keeneland, Lady Ilze dropped straight to the tail of the field under Jose Ortiz, made an eye-catching, swooping move from the seven-sixteenths pole into the homestretch, appeared to be gearing up for a run at the leaders, and then went flat from the eighth pole to the wire, checking in fifth.
A somewhat better start and a shorter trip could put Lady Ilze in the thick of things when she faces eight older fillies and mares in the featured sixth race Friday at Churchill Downs. This contest, like the one at Keeneland, is a second-level allowance, but it has an $80,000 claiming option and is carded at one mile, a half-furlong shorter than the Keeneland race.
Lady Ilze, a 4-year-old daughter of the stallion Territories, was bred in England but began her career, of all places, in Poland. She made five starts there as a 2-year-old, winning three and never racing beyond seven furlongs, before winding up in Germany with well-known trainer Andreas Wohler for her 3-year-old campaign. Wohler pushed Lady Ilze out to one mile, gave her a prep race, whereupon Lady Ilze beat eight fillies and won the German 1000 Guineas. A good performance, but her fifth-place finish seven weeks later in the Group 1 Falmouth Stakes hit an even higher level. Those two starts got Lady Ilze sold – for a lot of money. Offered at a Tattersalls online sale in July, Lady Ilze fetched about $1.19 million.
Still racing for Wohler, she raced first out in North America at Kentucky Downs last summer, and, like she did in her second start, broke slowly and fell far behind the pacesetters. Her trainer, Mark Casse, hopes that returning to the distance of her best races, one mile, helps Lady Ilze come forward.
“After her last race, Jose and I talked and he felt like we should shorten her up,” Casse said. “I’m hoping with the start at Keeneland under her belt, she’ll be a little sharper from the gate.”
Bracelet used her positional pace to get a much easier trip in the Keeneland race and missed winning by a hair, nailed on the wire by a well-meant filly named In the Stars. Bracelet figures the Friday favorite for trainer Brad Cox over Somethinabouther, a neck behind Bracelet at Keeneland with a very good trip.
Shred the Gnar to Fleur de Lis
Shred the Gnar looked like a Grade 1-class horse winning three straight races between March and November during her 3-year-old season in 2025. Returning from a three-month layoff to make her 4-year-old debut in the Royal Delta at Gulfstream, Shred the Gnar looked, frankly, bad.
She lost by 19 lengths as the 6-5 favorite but rebounded massively to capture the Grade 1 La Troienne on May 1. Shred the Gnar turned back a bid from favored Fully Subscribed and captured the La Troienne by one length, her 94 Beyer Speed Figure four points below her top.
“Couldn’t help but be thrilled about it,” said Brian Lynch, who trains Shred the Gnar for Travis Boersman’s Flying Dutchmen Racing and Breeding. “She took it to them when she needed to and finished with authority.”
Boersman has made a large investment in race horses the last several years; the La Troienne marked a first Grade 1 for Flying Dutchmen.
Having knocked out that Grade 1, Shred the Gnar has the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis on June 27 as a near-term target, though waiting in the long term, obviously, is the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
Lynch also has the Breeders’ Cup – the Turf Sprint – in the back of his mind for the 5-year-old mare Moon Spun. Moon Spun didn’t start between October 2024 and November 2025 but has gone 3 for 3 in turf sprints, all stakes, since her return. She, too, ran May 1 at Churchill, winning the Unbridled Sidney by three-quarters of a length, and Lynch will consider Moon Spun for a test against males June 6 at Churchill in the $225,000 Mighty Beau.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.