Played Hard turns back Secret Oath to prevail in La Troienne

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Played Hard ended her 4-year-old season in 2022 winning two Grade 3s in her last three starts. Her connections set a goal of notching a Grade 1 victory in 2023. It did not take long.

Racing for the first time since Nov. 26, Played Hard pressed pacesetting Society under a well-executed ride from John Velazquez, took command in upper stretch, and turned back a strong challenge from favored Secret Oath to win the Grade 1, $750,000 La Troienne Stakes by a neck at Churchill Downs on Friday.

Played Hard drifted out several paths from the three-sixteenth pole to the sixteenth pole and the two horses bumped a half-furlong from the finish. Tyler Gaffalione, rider of Secret Oath, lodged an objection, but the contact between Played Hard and Secret Oath came when Secret Oath leaned in, and stewards let the result stand.

Louisville native Phil Bauer trains Played Hard for Richard and Tammy Rigney’s Rigney Racing. He has 28 horses stabled at Churchill, all for the Rigneys, and has been their private trainer for 10 years. This was the fifth graded stakes win, the first in a Grade 1, for the owners and trainer, and Played Hard has given them three of those graded wins.

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Bauer said he and the Rigneys contemplated bringing Played Hard back from a scheduled winter break next month in the Grade 3, $225,000 Shawnee Stakes here at Churchill.

“I felt like we could have done a little more with her, but you don’t want to squeeze the lemon too hard this early in the year off a layoff,” said Bauer. “She trained herself into the race. We talked about going right to the next one on June 3. We [worked] her in company a few times, she handled it real well, and we thought, well, let’s give it a run.”

There were two pace players in the two-turn, 1 1/16-mile La Troienne: Played Hard, who was drawn on the rail, and Society, who broke from the No. 7 post. Velazquez plotted strategy accordingly.

“I told Phil I’m going to come out running” Velazquez said. “I worked her a couple times and the only thing he told me was she doesn’t like to be crowded to the outside. So, I wanted to come out running and spread the field.”

Played Hard’s early speed forced Society, who wanted the lead, to go hard for the lead into the first turn. That gave Velazquez space to get off the rail and outside Society, a maneuver horse and rider nimbly made partway around the turn. Search Results, who’d broken on top, slipped up the fence to get into the pocket sitting third as Society led Played Hard through a solid pace of 23.53 and 47.28.

Velazquez gradually turned up the heat on Society starting at the half-mile pole and had the leader under serious pressure at the three-eighths. Society threw in the towel at the quarter pole, but Search Results had run on the inside and Secret Oath was coming hard.

Eighth going into the far turn, Gaffalione and Secret Oath, the 2022 Kentucky Oaks winner, followed Pauline’s Pearl’s three-wide move around the bend, swung eight or nine paths wide at the top of the stretch, and took aim on Played Hard. Secret Oath came alongside Played Hard and was close to sticking her head in front, but could not sustain the run.

Asked if his mount had kicked as hard as she had winning the Azeri Stakes in March and finishing a tough second behind high-class Clairiere three weeks ago in the Apple Blossom, Gaffalione shook his head. “No, she didn’t.”

Search Results was only a half-length behind Secret Oath while making her first start since the Breeders’ Cup. She was head and head with the top two at the furlong grounds and should move forward off this race, presumably in the Ogden Phipps next month at Belmont Park.

“Hopefully she’ll benefit from this one,” said jockey Flavien Prat. “For a moment I thought I was going to win, but she just couldn’t go by those horses.”

A Mo Reay, winner of the Grade 1 Beholder Mile last out, rallied decently from ninth to finish fourth, 1 1/2 lengths behind Search Results. Then came Desert Dawn, Pauline’s Pearl, Soul of an Angel, Sixtythreecaliber, Society, and Classy Edition.

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The winner was clocked in a swift 1:42.48 over a fast track and paid $19.86. All starters carried 123 pounds. Played Hard was assigned a 98 Beyer Speed Figure.

Purchased by Rigney Racing for $280,000 at a yearling auction, Played Hard was disqualified from a maiden win in June 2021 after testing positive for the Class B drug meloxicam, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory. Bauer had two meloxicam positives in a short period and served a 30-day suspension.

In July 2021, Played Hard, a 5-year-old daughter of Into Mischief and Well Lived, by Tiznow, won a first-level allowance at Churchill with such force that connections sent her to the Alabama Stakes at Saratoga.

That first try in a Grade 1 yielded a fifth-place finish. Her second attempt was a third last fall in the Spinster. The mare’s third Grade 1, the La Troienne, hit the mark.

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