Nom de Plume has license to improve again

Bonne Chance Farm is the nom de course of owner-breeders Gilberto Sayão da Silva and Paulo Fernando de Oliveira, who send out the 4-year-old filly Nom de Plume as one of the favorites in the featured fifth race Sunday at Churchill Downs.

Bonne Chance, the Kentucky division of the South American operation Stud RDI, bred Nom de Plume, a daughter of Uncle Mo and the Bernardini mare Casting Director. The filly failed to meet a $535,000 reserve at Keeneland’s September 2021 yearling sale, instead winding up in the barn of Lexington-based trainer Paulo Lobo, who kept Nom de Plume to turf and synthetic racing the first five starts of her career.

Lobo tried dirt this past April at Keeneland, where Nom de Plume finished a troubled seventh, but back in another dirt race two months later at Churchill, Nom De Plume finished second, beaten a neck by the good mare Your So Sillea. That showing came in a race just like the Sunday feature, which is carded for six furlongs and open to third-level allowance horses or $100,000 claimers, and if Nom de Plume repeats it in her first start since Aug. 24, she wins.

The race drew eight entrants, including Miss Arlington, cross-entered in the Dream Supreme on Saturday at Churchill.

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