Sconsin dominates Winning Color Stakes

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Sconsin further solidified her position near the top of the North American filly-mare sprint ranks Saturday night with a dominating performance in the 18th running of the Grade 3, $150,000 Winning Colors at Churchill Downs.

Settling smartly after getting away smoothly in a field of just five fillies and mares, Sconsin and jockey Tyler Gaffalione swept past a pair of front-runners leaving the eighth pole en route to a 3 1/4-length triumph in the six-furlong Winning Colors.

Sconsin, a 4-year-old Include filly, returned $4.20 as second choice after finishing in a swift 1:08.80 over a fast track. The victory validated a runner-up finish behind the reigning divisional champion, Gamine, in her previous start, the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff on the May 1 Kentucky Derby card.

“She has a tremendous turn of foot,” Gaffalione said.

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Frank’s Rockette, the 3-5 favorite, engaged pacesetting Rising Seas midway through the turn but had difficulty getting past. In fact, as Sconsin sailed past them both, Rising Seas was able to hold second at 14-1, with Frank’s Rockette another half-length back in third. Headland and Tipsy Gal rounded out the order. Bayerness was an early scratch.

Greg Foley trains Sconsin for one of his longtime clients, Lloyd Madison Farms, a Wisconsin-based group that also bred Sconsin.

“She loves Churchill,” Foley said. “Every race she’s run here, she’s run a big race. She ran awfully big last out – she made Gamine work for it, anyway. She came out of that race even better, and I really thought she was going to run big tonight. Tyler rode her perfect.”

The $2 exacta (4-1) paid $30.20 and the $1 trifecta (4-1-2) returned $22.60.

The Winning Colors, named for the Hall of Fame filly who won the 1988 Kentucky Derby for D. Wayne Lukas, was run as dusk fell on a Downs After Dark card. It went as the fifth of 11 races, with another filly-mare stakes, the Keertana (race 9) at 1 1/2 miles on turf, coming a couple of hours later under the lights.