Sheer Drama targets Ogden Phipps Stakes

Sheer Drama came out of her third-place finish as the odds-on favorite in the La Troienne Stakes on May 6 at Churchill Downs in good shape and is being pointed to the $1 million Ogden Phipps Stakes on June 11 at Belmont Park, trainer David Fawkes said Friday.

Sheer Drama has returned to Fawkes’s base at Gulfstream Park, where she trained throughout a 2015 campaign that saw her develop into one of the best older dirt mares in North America. Sheer Drama started her 2016 campaign with a sharp, brave win over longtime rival Stopchargingmaria in the seven-furlong Madison Stakes at Keeneland on April 9 but was beaten more than seven lengths by the victorious Curalina in the La Troienne.

Fawkes doesn’t feel like Sheer Drama bounced last out but that she might not show her best over the Churchill surface.

“The rider came back and said she was spinning her wheels,” Fawkes said. “She’s run three times there and hasn’t won.”

Fawkes said he plans to base Sheer Drama at Gulfstream again throughout her 2016 campaign. “She ran very well like that last year, so that’s our plan right now,” he said.

If all goes well, Sheer Drama will move on from the Ogden Phipps to the Delaware Handicap, which she won last year.

Sheer Drama, a 6-year-old Harold Queen homebred by Burning Roma, has won seven of 22 starts for $1.64 million.

Turf-sprint feature

The nominal feature on Sunday’s 10-race card is race 9, a first-level turf-sprint allowance with a $25,000 claiming option. The race drew eight entrants and figures to have Sanctifica as a defined favorite for trainer Christophe Clement and jockey Eddie Castro. Sanctifica was a decent, close third in a race like this April 21 and has boosted her performance level since being switched to grass two starts ago.

Clement also has the likely favorite, Well Blessed, in race 7, an interesting 7 1/2-furlong maiden special weight grass race, but one to watch here is the rail-drawn Not in Jest. Not in Jest has trained steadily for Todd Pletcher’s barn at Palm Beach Downs for her career debut, and the Unbridled’s Song filly, as a daughter of the good racemare Stop Traffic, is a sister to Whitney winner Cross Traffic as well as the useful filly Thirteen Arrows.