Sheer Drama will train up to BC Distaff after Personal Ensign win

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – About 14 hours after she pulled a minor upset in the Grade 1 $750,000 Personal Ensign Stakes, Sheer Drama was on the road, headed to south Florida, where she will train up to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Oct. 30 at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky.

“She stays fit. She’s a good work horse. Nine weeks isn’t that long,” trainer David Fawkes said about electing to train up to the Breeders’ Cup.

Fawkes was at the wheels of the trailer that was to bring the 5-year-old filly back to Gulfstream Park. Fawkes was monitoring the weather and was prepared to stay at owner Harold Queen’s farm in Ocala, Fla., if need be.

Sheer Drama certainly took the Personal Ensign by storm, sitting behind the dueling favored duo of Untapable and Stopchargingmaria before taking command at the eighth pole and bounding home a 1 1/4-length winner over Get Lucky.

Sheer Drama, who added the Personal Ensign to prior victories this year in the Grade 1 Delaware Handicap and Grade 2 Royal Delta, was assigned a 98 Beyer Speed Figure for the Personal Ensign effort.

Fawkes said Sheer Drama came out of the race with “no problems at all.”

While Fawkes said he would prefer if Beholder, the two-time champion who just crushed males in the Pacific Classic, didn’t run in the Distaff, he said he wouldn’t be afraid to take her on.

“You never know how horses are going to take to a different track,” Fawkes said. “Everybody says when she’s left California, she doesn’t do as well.”

Untapable and Stopchargingmaria, third and fourth, respectively, in the Personal Ensign, could meet again in the Grade 1 Spinster at Keeneland on Oct. 5 as both seem to prefer races around two turns. Belmont Park has the Grade 1 Beldame on Sept. 26, but that race is run around one turn.