Puhich hopeful he can bring out Chatty Leroybrown's best

It was easy to see why the then-3-year-old filly Chatty Leroybrown went off at 33-1, the longest shot in a 10-horse field, in last August’s Washington Oaks at Emerald Downs.

Trained at the time by Hilario Perez for owner Hector Ramiro Preciado, Chatty Leroybrown had only won a maiden race a month prior, earning a career-high 47 Beyer Speed Figure in her 12th career race. The 1 1/16-mile Oaks was only her second route, although her maiden win had come at a mile. She was in against stakes winners and stakes-placed runners while having never run in a stakes herself.

In the Washington Oaks, Chatty Leroybrown broke perfectly, immediately took the lead, cruised easily along the backstretch under David Haldar, and, despite drifting out a bit in the stretch, had plenty left as she surged down the lane for a three-length win, earning a 68 Beyer. She paid $68.72.

“She ran like a 2-5 shot, and the guy rode her like she was 2-5,” observed trained Mike Puhich, who claimed her on June 19. “He was confident the whole way. That wasn’t a fluke. There’s talent there, tons of it.”

In her three races since the Oaks, however, Chatty Leroybrown has done little to dispel the notion that her triumph might have been an aberration. She’s lost those races by a combined 25 1/4 lengths, with her best effort a fourth-place finish in a one-mile starter allowance here on June 12.

On June 19, Chatty Leroybrown wheeled back to finish a distant fifth after setting the pace in a six-furlong claiming race. Puhich was surprised when Kevin Sengara, managing partner of the local syndicate Claim To Fame Racing, called prior to that race and said he wanted to claim her for $12,500.

“We got her replays up before we took her and said, ‘My god, yeah, she wants to go long,’ ” recalled Puhich. “That last race we claimed her out of, she had some issues. I don’t think she wants to be ridden the way they rode her in the race. She had a bunch of mucus on top of it, and that’ll stop horses as fast as anything.

“Kevin and I and his dad, we dissected every one of her races and said, ‘Man, this might be a good gamble.’ ”

They’re about to find out. Chatty Leroybrown is entered in Sunday’s race 6, a $10,000 starter allowance at a mile that has attracted a competitive field of six older fillies and mares. Chatty Leroybrown could find herself in the familiar role of longshot, but Puhich is cautiously optimistic that he’s got her where she needs to be to run back to that remarkable Oaks effort last summer.

“She’s kind of immature physically,” he said. “We’ve been doing a lot of work with her hind end and a lot of miles jogging. I think, physically, she’s in a good place. We breezed her the other day and she’s clean and breathes outstanding, just nice and easy.

“All our work’s done. She’s as good as she’s gonna be, now it’s just a matter of seeing how good she is.”

◗ One of Emerald’s most popular promotions, the T-Rex World Championships, returns to the track on Sunday. This involves patrons dressing up in inflatable dinosaur costumes and attempting to sprint out of the starting gate to a homestretch wire.