Promise Me Silver faces tall task in Eight Belles
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A year after winning the Grade 3, $200,000 Eight Belles with favored Fiftyshadesofgold, trainer Bret Calhoun is back with another filly in the same race at Churchill Downs, starting the unbeaten Promise Me Silver. But against a quality field in Friday’s Eight Belles renewal, the race immediately before the Kentucky Oaks, there is no guarantee of favoritism, let alone of winning.
Among the 11 fillies opposing Promise Me Silver are fellow stakes winners Callback, Ekati’s Phaeton, Mizz Money, Enchanting Lady, and Taylor S.
A Texas-bred 3-year-old daughter of Silver City, Promise Me Silver comes off a 2 1/4-length victory in the $100,000 Instant Racing Stakes at Oaklawn in one of the better-quality races in which she has competed while compiling a 7-for-7 record.
“She’s never faced horses of this caliber before, but I think she’s a really good filly,” Calhoun said.
For a seven-furlong race, the pace of the Eight Belles shapes up to be quick. At least half the entrants prefer to race on the lead or close to the pace.
This could favor a filly like Promise Me Silver, who is most comfortable stalking the leaders.
Key contenders
Callback (Last 3 Beyers: 77-85-90)
* If she had not been disqualified from first and placed fourth for interference in the Sunland Park Oaks on March 22, she might have landed in the Kentucky Oaks rather than in this race. But that disqualification cost her the qualifying points necessary to make the body of the field in an oversubscribed Oaks.
* Adds blinkers, which she raced with in her first three races before going without them in winning the Grade 1 Las Virgenes and in her troubled Sunland Park Oaks race.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 1 Callback. Trainer Bob Baffert is 26-9-1-0 with a $4.72 ROI over the past five years going route to sprint in dirt graded stakes. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
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Promise Me Silver (Last 3 Beyers: 82-80-78)
* Won going seven furlongs in a Texas-bred stakes race at Sam Houston and over the Churchill Downs main track in the six-furlong Debutante last summer as a juvenile.
Ekati’s Phaeton (Last 3 Beyers: 22-86-78)
* Joins the barn of Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott after a dismal two-turn effort in the Gulfstream Park Oaks, when seventh, beaten more than 40 lengths.
* Her efforts around one turn were far better this winter at Gulfstream, notching victories in the Grade 3 Old Hat at six furlongs and the Grade 2 Davona Dale at a mile.
Enchanting Lady (Last 3 Beyers: 98-79-83)
* Cutting back from a route to a sprint, she won the Santa Paula Stakes at Santa Anita on April 5 by 2 1/4 lengths after dueling for the lead – an effort that earned her the top last-race Beyer Speed Figure in the field.
Taylor S (Last 3 Beyers: 90-79-94)
* A speed horse, she drew favorably on the outside and twice has run Beyers in the 90s – something no other filly in the race has done.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 12 Taylor S. Trainer Dale Romans is 11-4-0-0 with a $4.47 ROI over the past five years in dirt sprint graded stakes at Churchill. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan