Pauline's Pearl, Americanrevolution heavy favorites on Stephen Foster Preview Day

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It might be the first time this has happened: A pair of last-out Grade 1 winners will resurface in ungraded stakes on the same card when Pauline’s Pearl and Americanrevolution go postward in separate events Saturday at Churchill Downs.

Pauline’s Pearl and Americanrevolution are among the entries spread among six $200,000 stakes on a Foster Preview Day card designed as a busy afternoon of prep races for the Stephen Foster and its accompanying co-features here July 2. The Saturday stakes anchor a program that starts at 12:45 p.m. Eastern and will be run amid nice weather, given the local forecast of sunny skies and low-80s temperatures.

Pauline’s Pearl, winner of the Grade 1 La Troienne on the May 6 Kentucky Oaks undercard, will face five other fillies and mares in the 1 1/16-mile Shawnee, a stepping-stone to the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis on Foster Day. The Shawnee leads off an all-stakes pick five as race 7 (3:50).

Americanrevolution will return precisely six months after winning the Grade 1 Cigar Mile on Dec. 4 at Aqueduct. He’ll face seven other older horses in the 1 1/8-mile Blame, a lead-in to the Grade 2 Foster, a Win and You’re In event toward the Nov. 5 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland. The Blame goes as race 10 (5:26).

The other Saturday stakes, all of which correspond to Foster Day races, are the Grade 3 Regret (race 5), the Grade 3 Arlington (race 8), the Aristides (race 9), and the Audubon (race 11). Purses for all six include $25,000 in bonuses restricted to registered Kentucky-breds.

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A trio of highly accomplished jockeys – John Velazquez, Javier Castellano, and Luis Saez – will be in from New York, lending a big day even further stature.

Shawnee

Sound logic, as usual, played into trainer Steve Asmussen’s decision to keep Pauline’s Pearl at home instead of sending the gray 4-year-old filly to the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps a week from Saturday on the Belmont Stakes undercard.

Asmussen noted that the timing of the Shawnee makes it easier for Pauline’s Pearl to run back in the Fleur de Lis, and it eliminates a lengthy to-and-fro ship to New York. Plus, with her hard-fought La Troienne victory over Shedaresthedevil, the Stonestreet Stables homebred now has that much-coveted Grade 1 to her credit.

“We also have Clairiere for the same owner [Stonestreet] in the Phipps,” said Asmussen.

With that, Pauline’s Pearl figures as a decisive favorite with Saez riding in the Shawnee. She’ll break from post 5, surrounded on either side by a pair of fellow 4-year-olds who figure as her chief opposition, Army Wife (post 4, Tyler Gaffalione) and Crazy Beautiful (post 6, Brian Hernandez Jr.).

Army Wife makes her seasonal debut off a six-month-plus layoff for trainer Mike Maker after knocking out $534,300 in a solid 3-year-old campaign highlighted by a victory in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan. Crazy Beautiful is a six-time stakes winner for Kenny McPeek, three of those in graded events.

Blame

Americanrevolution, trained by Todd Pletcher, capped a remarkable 3-year-old season spent mostly with fellow New York-breds by winning the Cigar Mile as the favorite for WinStar Farm and the China Horse Club. Shortly thereafter, the Constitution colt went home to WinStar, where he got a deserved break, said WinStar Farm president Elliott Walden.

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“He went at it pretty hard from June to the end of the year, so we gave him the winter off,” said Walden. “We’re excited to get him started. We had wanted to run him last weekend in the Commentator [for New York-breds at Belmont] but the race didn’t go, so here we are.”

Seven timed workouts – three at WinStar, followed by four at Belmont for Pletcher – precede the return of Americanrevolution, whose three straight triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures (101, 108, 105) to end 2021 should make him quite formidable here. Florent Geroux will be aboard from post 8.

The likely second choice, Scalding (post 6, Castellano), is unbeaten in four starts this year for Shug McGaughey, with his last two wins coming in the Grade 3 Challenger at Tampa Bay Downs and Grade 3 Ben Ali at Keeneland.

Dynamic One (post 5, Gaffalione) and Proxy (post 1, Saez) were the respective two-three finishers behind Scalding in the Ben Ali, and both have done enough on prior occasions to make them upset possibilities in case the two favorites don’t run their best.