Silverinyourpocket rallies to win La Troienne

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A return to a conventional dirt surface helped Silverinyourpocket return to her best form as she rallied from far back to take the Grade 3, $182,850 La Troienne Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on Saturday's Kentucky Derby undercard at Churchill Downs.

Silverinyourpocket ($11.60) broke a step slowly, and had just one horse beaten in the field of 10 midway through the 7 1/2-furlong race. But she began to close nearing the top of the stretch, then hugged the rail under Calvin Borel and set after the leaders. She hit the front inside the sixteenth pole, then held off late-running longshot Suaveness to win by a half-length.

Upcoming Story was another 1 1/4 lengths back in third. Appealing Zophie, the 9-5 favorite, faded after setting the pace and finished sixth, while the well-regarded Total also stopped badly and finished last.

Appealing Story set fractions of 22.40 seconds for a quarter-mile, 45.20 for a half-mile, and 1:10.08 for six furlongs.

"The horses in front of her were coming back pretty quick because they went kind of fast the first part and when I asked her to finish from the eighth pole home, she did," Borel said.

Silverinyourpocket covered 7 1/2 furlongs on the main track in 1:30.14. The track was upgraded from good to fast about 20 minutes before the La Troienne.

Silverinyourpocket won her first two starts sprinting at Gulfstream in February, then finished out of the money in two stakes races on Polytrack at Turfway Park and Keeneland. She is now 3 for 5. Helen Pitts trains Silverinyourpocket, a daughter of Silver Deputy, for David and Marilyn Randal.

"I don't know if Polytrack took her chances away as much as she had bad trips," said Pitts, who was the original trainer of Kentucky Derby entrant Curlin. "She's push-button. She's all class. She waits for you to call on her and does what you want."

Pitts said she likely would try to stretch out Silverinyourpocket around two turns next time.