Lewis yet to decide if Warren's Showtime will start in Clement Hirsch
There are several reasons why Warren’s Showtime could start in the second Grade 1 race of her career in Sunday’s $300,000 Clement Hirsch Stakes for fillies and mares at Del Mar.
“Breeders’ Cup. Money. Prestige. Broodmare value – all the above,” trainer Craig Lewis reflected Thursday.
The Hirsch is run at 1 1/16 miles and is the top race of the summer meeting for fillies and mares on dirt. The winner receives a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff here Nov. 6.
Owned by Ben and Sally Warren, Warren’s Showtime is a six-time stakes winner who has earned $697,431. A 4-year-old filly, Warren’s Showtime has had 20 starts and ended a streak of six second- and third-place finishes in stakes with a win in the Grade 3 Wilshire Stakes at a mile on turf on June 20 at Santa Anita.
A start in the Hirsch would be Warren’s Showtime’s first race on dirt since a second-place finish in the Betty Grable Stakes for California-breds at seven furlongs here last November. Lewis said Warren’s Showtime’s status for the Hirsch is “50-50” with the $150,000 Solana Beach Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile on turf on Aug. 15 considered a substitute.
“We’re taking a chance,” Lewis said. “We’ll enter and take a look.
“Somewhere down the road, our primary goal is to get to a million dollars in earnings. She’ll do that if she stays as good as she is now.”
Last August, Warren’s Showtime was third in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks, her debut in a race at that level.
The Hirsch Stakes had a projected field of seven, including As Time Goes By, Clockstrikestwelve, Cover Version, Paige Ann, Shedaresthedevil, and Venetian Harbor.
As Time Goes By won consecutive Grade 2 stakes at Santa Anita in April and May, while Shedaresthedevil won the Grade 1 La Troienne Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on April 30 at Churchill Downs and was third behind the highly rated Letruska in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes on June 5 at Belmont Park.