Sheer Drama declared ready to run

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer David Fawkes pronounced his multiple Grade 1 winner Sheer Drama ready to roll after she sizzled five furlongs in 58.33 seconds with jockey Joe Bravo aboard here Friday.

“She’s ready off that,” said Fawkes. “She wasn’t even blowing when she got back to the barn. Joe said he thought she went great and thought she’d gone in 1:01 – that’s how easily she did it. He said he asked her to gallop out after the wire, and she really took off. She went so much better than last week. It wasn’t even the same horse. I wasn’t crazy about her last work. It was okay, but I definitely knew she needed another one. I never expected her to work in hand like that. He never moved on her; it was all on her own.”

Fawkes said the Grade 1 Madison at Keeneland next Saturday is the most likely spot to kick off her 2016 campaign, with the Grade 1 Apple Blossom at Oaklawn on April 15 his other alternative. The Madison is at seven furlongs, and the Apple Blossom is at 1 1/16 miles.

Fawkes said he’s leaning toward the Madison, which would set up Sheer Drama for the Grade 1 La Troienne at Churchill Downs on May 6. Sheer Drama finished second in the 1 1/16-mile La Troienne last year.

“Going to the Madison would be an easier ship for us, too, because she’d really only have to make one trip rather than a second – if we went to Oaklawn first – to get to Churchill Downs,” Fawkes said. “And the timing is just a little better. She ran seven furlongs here in the Sunshine Millions last year, broke slow, and wound up finishing second, getting beat just two lengths, and Joe felt if she got away clean, she would have won.”

Sheer Drama rose through the ranks of the filly-and-mare handicap division during the second half of 2015 with victories in the Grade 1 Delaware Handicap and Grade 1 Personal Ensign before closing the year with a fourth-place finish after a tough trip from the outside post in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Her owner and breeder, Harold Queen, considered retiring her to the breeding shed after that race before deciding on running her again in 2016.