She Feels Pretty returns as class of the field in Hilltop
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BALTIMORE, Md. – She Feels Pretty is making her first start in more than six months, but still looms large in Friday’s $100,000 Hilltop Stakes for 3-year-old fillies going a mile on the Pimlico turf.
In this field of 10, She Feels Pretty is one of just three to even make a stakes start – and she has raced and won at the highest level. The filly won her first two career starts, including the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes at Woodbine by 4 1/2 lengths last October. That came on turf rated good, which is worth noting if there is still give in the ground on Friday, following a 90 percent chance of rain in Baltimore on Wednesday. In her next outing, She Feels Pretty closed to finish third, beaten just a half-length, in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita.
The only other stakes winner in the Hilltop is Roanan Goddess – a maiden winner on turf last year, who more recently has been running in dirt sprint stakes, winning the Xtra Heat in January on a muddy Laurel track and finishing third in the Wide Country in January. The other entrant in this field with a stakes start is Brown Suga Babe, fifth in the Dahlia on the Laurel turf.
This is the first start for She Feels Pretty since the Juvenile Fillies Turf in early November. Although the winner of that race, Hard to Justify, incurred her first loss when ninth in the Grade 2 Edgewood Stakes two weeks ago in her seasonal debut, the race has come back with good form. Runner-up Porta Fortuna, a Group 1 winner last year, was recently second in the English 1000 Guineas. Buchu and Life’s an Audible are graded stakes winners since the Breeders’ Cup, while Laulne is Grade 3-placed and a stakes winner.
She Feels Pretty, who would like some pace to run at under John Velazquez, got back on the work tab in March at Keeneland for trainer Cherie DeVaux, and has six breezes coming into the Hilltop.
“She might be a week short, but it’s a logical spot to get her started back,” DeVaux said.
With She Feels Pretty having established her class, the biggest threats are posed by lightly raced fillies with upside to explore. Waves of Mischief was a debut winner on the Keeneland turf going 1 1/16 miles for Brendan Walsh, while Expatriate was a debut winner at a mile on the Gulfstream turf for Chad Brown.
“I thought she ran well and showed plenty of room for improvement too,” Walsh said.
Graham Motion has won the Hilltop five times. This year, he saddles Royal Wintour, who has a win and two seconds, by a nose and a head, in three starts. The filly earned an 83 Beyer Speed Figure in a narrow allowance defeat last out; the career top for She Feels Pretty, also the top figure in this field, is an 85.
Just Better was second on debut before winning her next two outings, while Society Ball has won two of four starts and has never missed the board. Both fillies raced on or near the front end in their most recent outings, and could take advantage of a relatively paceless race on paper.
Just Better, trained by Steve Asmussen, will be the first mount at Pimlico for Frankie Dettori. He is named to ride two stakes Friday and four on Saturday, including Imagination in the Preakness Stakes.
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