Pauline's Pearl looks ready for big campaign
Plans for Pauline’s Pearl, who won the Grade 3, $300,000 Houston Ladies Classic for the second year in a row Saturday at Sam Houston Race Park, are to be determined, trainer Steve Asmussen said Sunday.
The race for fillies and mares was the richest offering during the Houston Racing Festival program of five stakes worth a total of $800,000.
Pauline’s Pearl pushed her career earnings to $1.8 million with her 1 3/4-length victory in the 1 1/16-mile race. Now 5, she earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 93 while making her first start since July. Pauline’s Pearl is based at Fair Grounds.
“That was a wonderful starting point,” Asmussen said Sunday of her campaign this year. “She beat a quality field off a long layoff, and I love the way in which she did it.”
Following last year’s Houston Ladies Classic, Pauline’s Pearl won the Grade 1 La Troienne at Churchill Downs. Saturday’s win was the sixth stakes score of her career.
“She’s an extremely significant mare, just another incredible Stonestreet homebred,” Asmussen said of the daughter of Tapit.
Pauline’s Pearl is out of the Grade 1-winning mare Hot Dixie Chick, who is a half-sister to Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming.
Hidden Connection finished second in the Houston Ladies Classic, one start after a dominant allowance win at Fair Grounds. The Grade 3 winner earned a career-high Beyer of 90 on Saturday.
“I thought she ran great – disappointed she didn’t win it,” said Bret Calhoun, who trains Hidden Connection. “You have to give a lot of credit to Pauline’s Pearl and the Asmussen team. She came off quite a long layoff and ran huge, is a Grade 1 winner, and has kept good company. Our filly ran a great race.”
Hidden Connection went over $500,000 in earnings. Plans for her next start are still being discussed, said Calhoun.
“There’s a decent chance she could go in the Azeri,” Calhoun said of the Grade 2, $350,000 race March 11 at Oaklawn Park. “The timing is pretty good. That’s a possibility.
“She seems to keep taking steps forward.”
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Hidden Connection is a 4-year-old daughter of Connect who races for Hidden Brook Farm and Black Type Thoroughbreds.
Oliviaofthedesert, a multiple stakes winner who was scratched from the Houston Ladies Classic, will likely run next in the $175,000 Endeavour on Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs, said trainer Wayne Catalano.
The 1 1/16-mile race is on turf. Oliviaofthedesert is a stakes winner on dirt and turf and is coming off a win on the grass in the Blushing K. D. at Fair Grounds.
"We want to keep her on turf," said Catalano.
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